
Gass J J H b 
Book J ^5 



ft ^V6^ 




9S 



PICTORIAL HISTORY 



OF THE 



MIDDLE AGES, 



THE DEATH OP CONSTANTINE THE GREAT TO THE 
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS. 




BY JOHN FEOST, LL.D. 

PKOFESSOK OF BELLES LETTKES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL OF PHILADELPHIA. 

PHILADELPHIA: - ^^ 

CHARLES J. GILLIS. 
18 46. 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 
JOHN FROST, 

In the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District 

of Pennsylvania. 



Ti3 



/ / 



T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. 



(4) 



-5 




The period of the Middle Ages deserves a distinct consideration 
in universal history, because it is marked by characteristics widely 
different from the ages of antiquity or those of modern times. The 
ancients had their own peculiar institutions, arts, literature, and social 
condition, which all bear a certain stern and classical aspect, like some 
antique Egyptian or Grecian temple frovi^ning upon the modern build- 
ings which surround it. When ancient civilization and art were 
nearly swept from the face of the earth by the barbarian hordes of the 
north, a new element was infused into the civilization, art, and litera- 
ture which were to succeed — an element destined to pervade, vivify, 
and redeem. Constantine the Great, in pronouncing the Roman 
empire Christian, brought into operation the conservative principle of 
the Middle Ages. The empire fell, it is true, vanquished by the bar- 
barians; but they, in their turn, yielded to the milder conquest of 
Christianity, thenceforth to be the ruling power among the nations, 



VI PREFACE. 

until a new era should come — the modern period, distinguished from 
antiquity and the Middle Ages by the empire of diplomacy, philosophy, 
Machiavelism, and capital. 

In passing over this middle period in the world's history, one cannot 
but be struck with the great influence exerted on all temporal affairs, 
all great movements of the nations, by the Church. The pope 
humbles emperors; sends millions of crusaders against the infidels; 
crowns and uncrowns kings ; spreads dismay over whole nations by 
his interdict: blesses the Northman setting out for new conquests; 
and gives India to King John of Portugal, with one hand, w^hile with 
the other he bestows the New World upon Ferdinand and Isabella 
the Catholic. Surely, the Middle Ages have their own peculiar 
political features. Such prodigies as these, the world witnessed at no 
other period. 

In literature and art, too, the Middle Ages have a character all their 
own. Then commenced the ballad literature, the old heroic songs 
which each modern nation of Europe has now learned to prize as the 
foundation of all its best poetry. Then were written those invaluable 
chronicles which have been the principal means of preserving, for 
modern historians, the living picture of the times, the very form and 
pressure of society as it existed in the days of chivalry and romance. 
Then were sown the seeds of all that is valuable in modern 
literature. Christianity had already breathed the breath of life into 
awakening intellect. The shroud of spiritual darkness, which had 
bound the ancient world, was already cast away. Life and immor- 
tality were brought to light ; and every subsequent effort of creative 
intellect was destined to recognise the infinite future, which is the 
Christian's hope and joy. The history of such a period must neces- 
sarily be full of interest. 




CHAPTER I. 

From the Death of Constantine to the Fall of the Western Empire .... Page 13 
Successors of Constantine, 15; Julian, 16; Valentinian, 20; The Visigoths, 23; Theodo- 
sius, 25; Alaric, 29; .iEtius, Boniface, Genseric, 31 ; Attila, 33; Fall of the Western 
Empire, 35. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Period of the Establishment of the Barbarians in the Western Empire . . . 
Merovaeus, 37; Clovis, 39; Kingdom of Italy, 47; Theodoric, 49; Successors of Clovis, 51; 
Thierry, 53; Childebert, 55; Belisarius, 57; The Avars and Turks, 63; Justinian, 65, 
The Lombards, 69 ; Sigebert, 73 ; Gondovald, 77 ; The Merovingian Kings, 81 ; Brune- 
haut, 85; Dagobert, 87; The Austrasians, 93; Pepin d'Heristal, 97; Pepin, 101; Affairs 
of Britain, 110. 



36 



CHAPTER III. 

The Rise and Establishment of the Saracenic Power 112 

Mohammed, 113; War with Persia, 121; Heraclius, 123; Death of Othman, 125; Om- 
miyade Dynasty, 127; Abderame, 129; Abdalrahman, 133. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Times of Charlemagne and his Successors 135 

Charlemagne's E.xpedition into Italy, 139; AfTairs of the Eastern Empire, 143; Conquest 
of the Huns, 145 ; Coronation of Charlemagne, 149 ; Incursions of the Northmen, 151 ; 
PoHcy of Charlemagne, 155; Bernard, 157; Theophilus, 161; Lothaire, 163; Pope 
Leo IV., 165; Alfred the Great, 167; Charles the Bald, 171; Siege of Paris by the 
Northmen, 173; Rollo, 175; Hugh Capet, 179; Edred, 183; Canute, 185; William the 
Conqueror, 187; Affairs of Italy and Germany, 191; Otho the Great, 193; Affairs of the 
Eastern Empire, 195; Conquest of Sicily by the Normans, 197; Siege of Durazzo, 199; 
The Moors and Saracens, 201 ; Decline of the Caliphat, 203. 

(7) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 



Inckease of the Papal Power 204 

The Iconoclasts, 205; Hildebrand, 209; The Normans in Italy, 211 ; Persecution of the 
Secular Clergy, 213; Excommunication of the Emperor, 215; Submission of Henry 
IV., 217; Death of Gregory VII., 221 ; Henry V., 223. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Times of the Crusades 225 

Peter the Hermit, 227; First Crusade, 229; Alexis Comnenus, 231 ; Siege of Nicaea, 233; 
Siege of Antioch, 235 ; Storming of Jerusalem, 239 ; Election of Godfrey of Bouillon, 241 ; 
Baldwin I., 243; Baldwin II., 245; Fall of Edessa, 251; Second Crusade, 254; Siege 
of Damascus, 257; Fall of Jerusalem, 259; Siege of Acre, 261 ; Battle of Azotus, 265; 
Siege of Jafi'a, 267; Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 269 ; Philip Augustus, 271; Enfranchise- 
ment of the Communes, 275; Henry II. — Louis le Jeune, 279; Thomas a Becket, 281; 
The Albigenses, 283 ; Magna Charta, 285 ; Affairs of Germany, 287 ; Latin Empire in 
Greece, 289; Frederic II. in Italy, 291 ; Death of King John, 293; Simon de Montfort, 
295 ; St. Louis, 297 ; Death of St. Louis, 301 ; Affairs of Spain, 303. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Decline of the Papal Power 305 

Suppression of the Templars, 306 ; Rodolph of Hapsburg, 309 ; The Swiss, 311 ; John of 
France, 313; Rienzi, 315; John Huss, 317; Battle of Halidon Hill, 319; Battle of Poi- 
tiers, 323; Charles the Wise, 325; Henry V., 327; Wars of the Roses, 328; Joan of 
Arc, 330; Ferdinand and Isabella, 331 ; Sweden, 337; The Turks, 339; Cosmo de Me- 
dici, 341 ; E.xpulsion of the Moors from Spain, 343. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



India 



345 



Ancient India, 346 ; Chandra Gupta, 347 ; Vasco de Gama, 348. 



CHAPTER IX. 



China 



349 



Ancient China, 349 ; The Chou-king, 350 ; The Hea Dynasty, 351 ; Tchoung Ting, 352 ; 
Confucius, 353 ; His Writings, 354 ; Lao-tseu, 355 ; Tartar Incursions, 356 ; The Huns 
in China, 357; Li-chi-min, 358; Kao Tsoung, 359; End of the Tartar Dynasty, 360. 








O H ^ A :J E N r S D T I T h 13 P A r, p. 
EMBLEMS OP THE J.tXJ5ULE AGS'! 
VIGNETTE. A T O U a N A LI E N T 

HEAD PIECE TO CONTENTS . 

TAIL PIECE TO CONTENTS. 

UK AD PIECE TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

TAILPIECE. .■ 

13.SITE0FK0ME. 
13. ORNAMENTAL LETTER 

17. PORTRAIT OF THE EMPEROR J tT L I A.N 
21. VILLAQS'OF THE ANCIE7-IT 0.4UL3 
2o. THEODOSIUS AND ST. AMBItOSE 
30.ALABIC. 
3 3 . ATTI LA. 

36. HEADPIECE. ARMOUR. 
36. ORNAMENTAL LETTER 
38. ELEVATION OP KING CLOVIS 
40. FRANK -WARRIOR BREAKING THE VA: 

43. BATTLE OPTOLBIAC 

44. INTERVIE-TO" OF ALARIC AND CLOVIS 

46. BAPTISM OFCLOVIS 

50. CLOVIS ENTERING TOURS. 

61. FRANK ■V7ARBI0R . ' . 

d3. CLOTAIRE DISCOVERING AS3ASSI-.7S 

55. MURDER OF CLODOMI R's C Jl I L D )t H NT 

60. SIEGE0FZARAGO33A. 

62. DEATHOPCHBAMME 

64. CHILPERIC DIVIDING UlS FATITEll' 

TREASURES. 
66. JUSTINIAN AND THE MONKS 

65. SA20N TTARRIOR. 
7 . B R U N B H A U T 

1 :i . DEATH O'FSIGEBERT. 

74. DEATH OF PRE TEST AT . 

77.FREDEGONI5E. 

70. MURDEltOFGOKDOVALD 



D E V E H E II S 
A U r. R E Y . 



FROM A PRE 
PRINT. 



HARDING 

W . R O O M E . 

CHEVALIER 
K U B E N S 

J . n A v'l ]■) . 

Ji E y -A L I E R 
J . DAVID. 

CHEVALIER 
J. DAVID 
VIC 1' OB ADAM 
J . DAVID 

FROM A F B E 
P R I N T 
DAVID 



\V . C R O O M E 
CHEVALIER 
■W . C R O O M E 
VICTOR ADAM. 
J . DAVID 
■W . C R O O M E 



C H 1 



G . T . D E V E It E U S 
H . B R I C U E a. 

O. T. DEVEREUX 



ROBERTS. 
P . T,V A I T T . 



.JJ . B R I C H E R . 

B jl I G U T LT. 

Jt . D RI C H E B. 
B . F . W A I T T 

U . K I N N E R S I, E Y . 

G. T. DEVEREUX. 

H . B R I C H E R . 

B . F . Vr A I T r . 

BRIGHTLY. 

B. F. V A ITT. 

G. T. DEVEREUX. 

HBIOHTLT. 

G. T. DEVEREUS. 

H. BBICHEB. 

D . F . -,V A I T T. 

H . B R I C H E K . 

■W . ROBERTS 



Vol. II.— 2 



y) 



LIST OF EMBELLISHINIENTS, 



83. 
85. 
86. 
87. 

69. 

9 1. 

94. 
9 5. 
99. 

103. 
106. 

1 07. 
108. 

109. 
111. 
112. 
1 12. 
116. 

lis. 

12 1. 
12 5. 
125. 
12 6. 
126. 

134. 

135. 
135. 



141. 
144. 



ST. COLCTMB A.ND THE SOLDIERS . 

DEATH OF MEBOV^US. 

DSATH OP DR0NKUA0T .... 

CLOTAIKK MEASURING THE PRISON- 
ERS. 

TIIEDISROFDAOOBERT 

SUBMISSION OF THE GASCONS TO 

D AGO B E RT ..... 

MURDER OF CHILDERIO 

BATTLEOFTESTRT 

THE FUGITIVE "WOUNDED "WHEN 
SEEKINGSANCTUART 

CORONATION OF PEPIN LE BF. EP. 

FRANKS GIVING ARMS AND P]lISON- 
ERS FOR FOOD ...... 

CHARLESMARTEL 

CHARLES MARTEL RECEIVING THE 
pope's PRESENTS ... 

DEATHOFASTOLPHUS 

TAIL PIECE. REGALIA 

HEAD PIE 'IE. MOHAMMED 

ORNAMKl»rALLETTER. SWORD. KORAN. 

MOHAMMED EXPLAINING THE KORAN 
ATMEDINA. 

ENCAMPMENT OF ARABS. 

MOHAMMED 

MURDER OF OTEMAN . . . . 

MECCA 

DEFEAT OF RODRIOO . . . . 

BATTLEOFPai TIERS . 

TAILPIECE. 

NORMAN ARMOUR .... 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER . . . . 

CHARLEMAGNE CROSSING THE ALPS 

BAPTISM OP TTITIKIND 
BATTLEPIECE 



J. DAVID. 

R A F F E T 

^V. C RO O U E 



BRIGUTLr. 
B . F . \V A I T T . 



\V . O R O O M E 

V I C 1' O R ADAM 



W. ROBERTS. 



B . F . -W A I T T . 



K. H. PEASE. 



147. CORONATION OP CHARLEMAGNE . 

150. ORNAMENTAL LETTER. 

153. CHARLEMAGNE IN HIS IMPERIAL 

COSTUME 

154. ORNAMENTAL LETTER. 

169. NORTHMAN ...... 

162. LOUIS LE DEBONNAIRE 

163. FRANK TVARRIOR OF THE TIME OP 

LOUIS LE DEBONNAIRE 
168. STANDARD OF THE RAVEN 

170. BATTLE OF SAUCOURT. 

173. SIEGE OF PARIS 

175. TREATY BET-WEEN CHARLES IV. AND 

BOLLO ....... 

17S. ELECTION OF HUGH CAPET. 

1S2. ARMS, DRESS AND SHIP OP THE 

SAXONS 



■W. CROOME . . . "W . ROBERTS. 

R. H . PEASE. 

J. DAVID N. B. DEVEREUS. 

■W. CROOME. . . . B. F. WAITT. 

J.DAVID .... " " 

TV. CROOME. . . . H. BRIOHF, R. 

J. DAVID J. DOWNES. 

R A F F E T B . P . WAITT. 

GILBERT G. T. DEVEREUX. 

RAFFET . . . . . B. F. WAITT. 
W. CROOME ... " " 

" " G. T. D E V E R E U S. 

J. DAVID. .... "W. CROOME. 

VICTOR ADAM . . H. BRICHER. 
(PROM A PKENCH 
( PRINT. 

TELLIER G.T. DEVEREUX. 

FROM A FRENCH 

B. H. PEASE. 
PRINT 

" " . . . H. KINNERSLEY. 

TELLIER G. T. DEVEREUX. 

(PROM A FRENCH) 

i VR.H. PEASE. 

( PRINT. . . . ) 

" " . . . H. BRICHER. 

J. DAVID . . . . G. T. DEVEREUX. 

RAFFET H. BRICHER. 

■W. CROOME . . . B. P. WAITT. 

RAFFET H. BRICHER. 

" Q.T. DEVEREUX. 

" R. H . P E A S E . 

CHEVALIER . . . N. B. DEVEREUS. 

TELLIER T. PEASE. 

VICTOR ADAM . . U. H. PE.\3S. 

iPROM AN ENGLISH) 

\ J. DOWNES. 
PRINT . . . . J 



LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS. 



166. 


188. 


190. 


19 4. 


198. 


200. 


202. 


204. 


204. 


206. 


2 07 


2 11 


214 


2 1 5 


2 1-S 


220 


223 


225 


225 


22 7 



235. 



240. 



242. 


245. 


247. 


248. 


249. 


25 1 


2 52 


2 53 


256 


257 


260 


261 


262 


263 


265 


268 


272 


276 


276 



LANDING OF WILLIAM THE CONQ-tJEROR 
B A. T T L E O F H A S T I N G S . 

■WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR PKOMISINO 

TO OBSERVE THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 

OONBADII.. 

THE NORMANS CONQUERING SICILY 
ROBERT GUISCARD ORDERING HIS 

SHIPS TO BE BURNT . 
BURIAL OF ROBERT GUISCARD 
HILDEBRAND . . . * . 

SUBMISSION OF HENRY IV. 
OTHO THE GREAT .... 
OTHO ENTERTAINING THE SENATORS 
LEO IS. ABSOLVING THE NORMANS 
HENRYIV. 
PRIEST 
GODFREY OF BOUILLON, -KINO OF JE 

BUSALEM 
SIEGE OF ROME BY THE NORMANS 
HBNRYV. 
HEADPIECE. 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER. 
PETER THE HERMIT AND THE PATRI 

ARCH OF JERUSALEM 
PETER THE HERMIT LEADING CRU 

SADERS. 
ROBERT OF NORMANDY SLAYING THI 

TURK. 
BISHOP AD HE MAR BLESSING THE CRU 

SADERS. 
CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM BY THE CRU 

SADERS 
GODFREY'S CONTEST WITH THE BEAR 
FUNERAL OP BALDWIN I. KING OP 

JERUSALEM. 
ALEXIS C0MNENU3 . . . . • 

ORNAMENTALLETTER. 
ST. BERNARD PREACHING THE SECOND 

CRUSADE. 
ARAB WARRIOR .... 

ORNAMENTAL LETTER . . . . 

PASSAGE OF THE MEANDER 
LOUIS VII. AT MOUNT CADMUS 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER. 
FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 
MOUNTED KNIGHT .... 
ALBERIC CLEMENT AT THE SIEGE OP 

ACRE. 
CAPITULATION OF ACRE 

RICHARD CCEUR DE LION AT AZOTUS. 
RICHARD CCEUR DE LION DISGUISED. 
EMBARKATION OF WILLIAM THE CON- 
QUEROR. 
, FREEING THE COMMUNES 
DEATH OP WILLIAM BUPUS 



Drti^ncrs. 
T E L L 1 E H . 
ENGLISH PRINT 



T E L L I E R . 
W. C RO O M E 
T E LLI B R . 



G . W R L E T 
W. C RO O ME 



TE LLI E R 



W. C R O O M E 
FRENCH PRINT 



T E L L I E R . 
W . C R O O M E 
J. DAVID 



FRENCH PRINT 



W . C BO O M : 



FRENCH PRINT 

B A F F E T 



FRENCH PRINT 



•W. C ROO M E 
ENGLISH PRINT 



FRENCH PRINT 



T E L L I E R 



\V A I r T . 
DEVSBEUX. 



P. W A ITT. 
. G R O O M E . 
D O W N E S. 

B R I C H E R. 
D O W N B S. 
T. DEVEREDX. 



B . F . A^ A I T T . 

G. T. DEVEREUX 



H. BRICHER 

G. T. DEVEREDX 



H . PEASE. 
F. 17 A I TT. 



G I H N. 

O. T. DEVEREUS 



R . H. PEASE. 

H. BRICHER. 

B . F . ^^? A I T T . ■ 

H. BRICHER. 

G. T. DEVEREDX. 

R. H. PEASE. 

O. T. DEVEREDX. 



. PEASE. 
DEV EREUS 



LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS. 



279. QUEEN EL E A. NOR 



DEATH OF THOMAS A B E C K E T 

KING JOUN ABSOLVED BY THE POPE' 

LEOATS. 
B A.T TLEOFBO0VINES 
■WILLIAM LONOESPEE, EARL OP SAL 

ISBUBT. 
FALL OF CONoTA^rTINOPLE 
FBEDERICII. . 

SHIPS OP THE THIRTEENTH OENTTTRY 
BATTLE OP TAILLEBOURa 
SIEGE OF AVIGNON 
ST. LOUISINCAPTIVITT 
ST. LOUIS ENTERING PTOLEMAIS 
DEATH OP ST. LOUIS 
TAILPIECE 
HEAD PIECE. ARMOUR OP THE MID 

DLEAGES. 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER. 
SURVIVORS OF THE BATTLE OF NAZA 

R E T H . 
RODOLPH OF HAPSBURG 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER. 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER 
ORNAMENTAL LETTER. 

CAPTIVITY OF JOUN, KING OF FRANCE 
RE TURN. OF KING JOHN TO FRANCE 
BATTLE OFAZINCOUR 
HENRY V. ENTERING LONDON. 
THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, REGENT O 

FRANCE 
JOAN OF ARC PRESENTED TO CHARLE 

VII.. 
CHARLES VII., KING OP PRANCE 
RICHARD II. OP ENGLAND. 
DEATHOFVJ-AT TYLER 
HENRY IV. AND RICHARD II. ENTER 

INGLONDON. 
RICHARD PLANTAGENET DUKE O 

YORK. 
RICHARD DUKE OF GLOUCESTER 
HENRY VI. RELEASED FROM THE TO"WE 

OPLONDON 
HENRY VII. CRO'WNED ON THE FIEL 

OFBOSV/ORTH. 
TURKISH ENCAMPMENT 
MOORIS'I ARCHITECTURE. CHURCH O 

T HE DOMINICANS AT CATALAYUD 
CAVESOFEI, LORA 
THEKUTTUBMINAR 

CONFUCIUS AND HIS DISCIPLES 
THE EMPEROR PLOUGHING 
TARTAR GENERAL AND HIS TROOPS 
TAILPIECE. 



280 


284 


2S5 


286 


2S9 


29 


29 1 


29 4 


296 


29 7 


298 


300 


304 


305 


305 


307 


3 10 


3 1 1 


3 13 


o 16 


3 19 


3 2 1 


324 


326 


o2 7 


328 



33 1. 
332. 
333. 
334. 



33 5. 
3a6. 

337. 

338. 
ii4 3 

3 4 5. 
348. 
353. 
356. 
359 
•iGO, 



^FROM AN English) 

I PRINT. S 

jFROW A. FRENCnj 

P .H 1 N I' . ! 



VICTOR ADAM 

ENGLISH PRINT 
FRENCH PRINT 
•W. C ROO M E 
ENGLISH PRINT 
VICTOR ADAM 
(( (( 

FRENCH PRINT 



■W . C R O O M E 
FRENCH PRINT 



T E L L I E R . 
VICTOR ADAM 
T E L L IE R . . . 
ENGLISH PRINT 



FRENCH PRINT 
ENGLISH PRINT 



FRENCH PRINT 



G. T. DEVEREDX 
B . CLAYTON 



O . F . SARGENT 
ENGL TSH PRINT 



Lcliravcr.. 
O. T. DEVEREDX. 



Jl . B R I O 1 1 F R . 

G. T. DEVERPUi:. 

H. B R I C 11 E R. 

B . F . W A I T T . 

H . B R I C H E R . 

H . II . PEASE. 

H. BRICHER. 

F. PEASE. 

R. H . PEASE. 



Q. T. DEVEREDS. 



G. T. DEVEREUi, 
J . D O Mi' N R, S . 



H. H R I II E R. 

N . B . D i V E R E O i . 



R . H . PEASE. 
H. 3 R I O H K H. 



(t (( 



G. T. DEVEHEUX 



H. BRICHER. 




SITE OF ROME. 



IlISTOHY or THE MIDDLE AGES. 



CHAPTER I. 



HE period called the Middle Ages may justly be regarded as 
in many respects the most interesting and instructive in the 
history of the world. It witnessed the destruction of nearly 
every institution and art which distinguished the ancient 
world, and the gradual formation of the social, political, 
literary, and religious ^systems which are the pride and 
boast of modern times. The false notion that this period is 
to be considered as one of unmitigated darkness and barba- 

now exploded. The opinion expressed by the liberal and enlightened 
some thirty years since, has now received the sanction of the most able 

1 writers. In his lectures on the History of Literature, he says : " We 

(13) 




rism, IS 
Schlegel 
historica 



14 CTTARACTRR OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 

often think of and represent to ourselves the middle age as a blank in the history 
of the human mind, an empty space between the refinement of antiquity and the 
illumination of modern times. We are willing to believe that art and science had 
entirely perished, that their resurrection after a thousand years' sleep may appear 
something more wonderful and sublime. Here, as in many others of our customary 
opinions, we are at once false, narrow-sighted, and unjust ; we give up substance 
for gaudiness, and sacrifice truth to effect. The fact is, that the substantial part 
of the knowledge and civilization of antiquity never was forgotten, and that for 
very many of the best and noblest productions of modern genius, we are entirely 
obliged to the inventive spirit of the middle age. It is upon the whole extremely 
doubtful whether those periods which are the most rich in literature, possess the 
o-reatest share either of moral excellence or of political happiness. We are well 
aware that the true and happy age of Roman greatness long preceded that of 
Roman refinement and Roman authors ; and I fear there is but too much reason 
to suppose that, in the history of the modern nations, we may find many exam- 
ples of the same kind. But even if we should not at all take into our considera- 
tion these higher and more universal standards of the worth and excellence of 
ages and nations, and although we should entirely confine our attention to litera- 
ture and intellectual cultivation alone, we. ought still, I imagine, to be very far 
from viewing the period of the middle ages with the fashionable degree of self- 
satisfaction and contempt. 

" If we consider literature in its widest sense, as the voice which gives ex- 
pression to human intellect — as the aggregate mass of symbols in which the spirit 
of an age or the character of a nation is shadowed forth ; then, indeed, a great and 
accomphshed literature is, without all doubt, the most valuable possession of 
which any nation can boast. But if we allow ourselves to narrow the meaning 
of the word literature so as to make it suit the limits of our prejudices, and expect 
to find in all literatures the same sort of excellencies, and the same sort of forms, 
we are sinning against the spirit of all philosophy, and manifesting our utter igno- 
rance of all nature. Everywhere, in individuals as in species, in small things as 
in great, the fulness of invention must precede the refinements of art, — legend 
must go before history, and poetry before criticism. If the literature of any nation 
has had no such poetical antiquity before arriving at its period of regular and arti- 
ficial developement, we may be sure that this literature can never attain to a 
national shape and character, or come to breathe the spirit of originality and inde- 
pendence. The Greeks possessed such a period of poetical wealth in those ages 
(ages certainly not very remarkable for their refinement either in literature, pro- 
perly so called, or in science) which elapsed between the Trojan adventures and 
the times of Solon and Pericles, and it is to this period that the literature of 
Greece was mainly indebted for the variety, originality, and beauty of its unri- 
valled productions. What that period was to Greece, the middle age was to 
modern Europe ; the fulness of creative fancy was the distinguishing characteristic 
of them both. The long and silent process of vegetation must precede the spring, 



THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 15 

and the sprinir must precede the maturity of the fruit. The youth of individuals 
has been often called their spring-time of life ; I imagine we "may speak so of 
whole nations with the same propriety as of individuals. They also have their 
seasons of unfolding intellect and mental blossoming. The age of crusades, 
chivalry, romance, and minstrelsy, was an intellectual spring among all the 
nations of the west." 

In treating this period of history, we commence with the reign of the imme- 
diate successors of Constantine the Great, under whose auspices the Roman 
empire had embraced Christianity, and a new element of political power had 
sprung into existence, which was destined to become the most striking charac- 
teristic of the middle ages. 

The tomb had not received the mortal remains of Constantine the Great, when 
a plot was laid for the destruction of some of the objects of his regard. The 
great emperor had permitted his unambitious brothers, Julius Constantius, Dal- 
matius, and Hannibalianus, to enjoy the most honourable rank and the most afflu- 
ent fortune that could be consistent with a private station. Besides these three 
brothers, several sisters of the emperor were living in the married state, and ten 
or twelve males, w^ho would in modern phrase be called princes of the royal 
family, appeared destined to inherit or support the throne of Constantine. The 
emperor had been instigated to murder his eldest son, Crispus; and after his death, 
he invested with the title of Csesar his three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and 
Constans, and the son of Dalmatius, who bore the name of his father. The 
brother of the young Dalmatius, who was named Hannibalianus, was clothed in 
a robe of purple and gold, and honoured with the title of JYobilhsimus. These 
five young men had all been carefully educated, and fitted both for the fatigues of 
war and the pursuits of science. The emperor himself instructed them in the art 
of government, and the knowledge of mankind, and at his death he shared the 
empire amongst them.* A zealous intrigue was commenced immediately after his 
death, which resulted in a loud and unanimous declaration of the troops that they 
would allow none but the sons of the late emperor to reign over the Roman 
Empire. The fate of the young Dalmatius and his royal brother was suspended 
until the arrival of Constantius, who governed the East, residing at Constan- 
tinople. 

The first care of that prince was to remove the apprehensions of his kinsmen 
by an oath which he pledged for their security : the second to procure a pretext 
for their murder, at a time when their fears should be allayed. Such a pretext 
was furnished by the Bishop of Nicomedia ; and Constantius caused the murder 
of his two uncles, seven of his cousins, among whom were the deposed princes, 
and others who were considered dangerous, either on account of their degree of 
relationship to Constantine, or because of their wealth and influence. 

* Gibbon. 



IG THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 

This massacre was followed by a new division of the empire, each of the 
brothers receiving the title of Augustus. (A. D. o37.) Constantine governed, by 
a kind of pre-eminence, over his brothers, the new capital of the Empire ; Con- 
stantius ruled Thrace and the countries of the East ; and Constans received Italy, 
Africa, and Western Illyricum for his portion. 

Constantius found his patrimony menaced by Sapor, or Shahpoor, the 
monarch of Persia, who had splendidly commenced a career of conquest in the 
East. Dread of the power and genius of Constantine the Great had held him in 
check ; but on the death of that monarch, he poured his troops into Mesopotamia ; 
and for some years, the Roman annals had only to tell of armies defeated and 
towns captured by the Persian warrior. Constantius met him in a ninth battle, 
and half gained it ; but his soldiers neglected to guard well their camp in the 
night, and the brave Sapor led his weary troops to a briUiant and decisive victory. 
Having subsequently failed three times in besieging the important city of Nisibis, 
he turned his arms against the Massagetae, who had invaded the regions about 
the Oxus, and concluded a peace with the emperor. (A. D. 350.) 

The three sons of Constantine had already displayed their eagerness after 
territories which neither of them was able to govern. Constantine was dis- 
satisfied with his share of the spoils of his murdered kinsmen, and he demanded 
of his brother Constans the cession of Africa. A negotiation followed, in 
which Constantine became exasperated by the insincerity of his brother, and 
he suddenly invaded his dominions. But Constans was an able and prudent 
general ; and his plans for the prosecution of the war were w^ell laid and 
successfully executed. Constantine was surprised, surrounded, and slain, by an 
ambuscade into which he had been ensnared. (A. D. 340.) His provinces all 
refused to acknowledge the rule of Constantius ; so that the youngest brother 
now possessed two-thirds of the whole empire. Ten years afterwards, how- 
ever, he was punished for the murder of his brother by the traitor Magnen- 
tius, who revolted and assumed the purple. (A. D. 350.) 

The troops in Illyria forced their aged leader, Vetranio, to accept the 
title of Augustus, and to form an alliance with his fellow-usurper. They pro- 
posed terms of accommodation to Constantius, who indignantly rejected those 
of Magnentius, while he commenced an artful negotiation with the frank and 
simple Vetranio. In the end that general found that his soldiers had been 
bought over by the emperor, and he gladly accepted his life and the govern- 
ment of the city of Prusa, in exchange for the dangerous sceptre. 

At the head of the united armies, Constantius now marched against the 
remaining usurper, who was so successful in the commencement of the war, 
that the haughty emperor offered him peace. But he imprudently continued the 
struggle, and was defeated in a bloody battle at Mursa. He conducted bravely 
in the action, and of the fifty-four thousand men that were slain, the greater 
number fought on the side of Constantius. His army was totally ruined in a 
defeat near Mount Seleucus, in the following year, and he anticipated the 
vengeance of his enemies by falling on his own sword. (September 28, 351.) 



JULIAN. 



17 



Constantius, however, sunk in effeminacy and debauchery, and surrounded 
and governed by eimuchs, was unable alone to sustain the weight of govern- 
ment ; he therefore took to his assistance his cousin Gallus, who had hitherto 
been a state prisoner, and whose father he had previously slain. Gallus was 
created Caesar, and sent into the East to defend that quarter of the empire 
from its enemies. The new Caesar was in every way unfit to rule. Brought 
from his prison to a throne, he gave way to his naturally violent and tyran- 
nical temper. By the instigation of his wife Constantina, he retaliated upon 
his courtiers and subjects the injuries he had himself experienced : thus depriv- 
ing himself of the affections of the people, and furnishing a pretext for his 
destruction to the emperor, who could not abide a rival even in cruelty. 




Constantius, thinking that he would become dangerous, recalled him, 
deprived him of his dignity, and caused him to be banished to Pola, in Istria, 
where he was secretly beheaded. (December, 354.) 

His brother Julian, from whom the suspicious Constantius believed he 
had nothing to fear, was promoted in his place, created Cffisar, and sent to 
defend the frontiers on the Rhine. Although Julian passed suddenly from the 
Vol. n. 3 



18 THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 

quiet pursuits of study to the toils and dangers of war, he not only fought 
the Germans with success, but also made a deep inroad into their country. 
Cffisar crossed the Rhine twice ; but Julian crossed over that river three times, 
and on each invasion his arms were attended with signal success. 

The emperor meanly claimed for himself the honours won by his unaided 
lieutenant. His generals had been beaten by the Persians, and he was pre- 
paring an expedition to chastise that enemy under his own direction. This 
circumstance afforded a pretext for withdrawing the troops from Gaul, and 
leaving Julian to certain destruction. But most of the soldiers had stipulated 
on entering the service that they should not be taken from their native country 
beyond the Alps, and the faith of Rome and the honour of Julian had been 
pledged for the observance of this condition. The commands of the emperor, 
however, were so explicit, that the Ceesar could only obey. He endeavoured 
to alleviate the sufferings of the oppressed soldiers by granting a sufficient num- 
ber of post wagons to transport their wives and families; but the grief of the 
army became changed into rage against its cause ; they loved Julian and hated 
Constantius ; they called to mind the virtues of the one and the vices of the 
other ; they listened in profound silence to the charge of the Caesar to conduct 
themselves with honour in the service of the emperor ; they retired from his 
presence to indulge in licentious festivities; which were ended by the forcible 
seizure of Julian, who was guarded with drawn swords through the streets 
of Paris, and saluted as emperor. 

Julian opposed their wishes at first, but accepted the empire when they 
declared that he must either reign or die.* (A. D. 361.) On the next day he 
assembled the troops and informed them that if the emperor of the East would 
acknowledge him, they should remain quiet in Gaul. He wrote to Constantius, 
excusing what had occurred, and requiring the confirmation of his dignity, 
but offering to acknowledge the supremacy of the elder emperor, and to sup- 
ply him annually with Spanish horses and barbarian recruits. While waiting 
for the result of this application to his cousin, Julian strengthened his army. 
Before commencing the civil war, he crossed the Rhine a fourth and a fifth 
time, and forced the Germans to make peace. 

Constantius returned a haughty answer to the letter of Julian, charging 
the Csesar with ingratitude, and requiring him to renounce his usurped title, and 
accept a pardon on certain conditions. The charge of ingratitude aroused the 
resentment of Julian, who had been engaged for more than twenty years in con- 
stant dissimulations, that he might save his life from the jealousy and fears 
of the murderer of his father and his brother. He had a few weeks before 
celebrated i)ul)licly the Christian festival of the Epiphany ; but he now as pub- 
licly renounced the religion and friendship of Constantius, by committing the 
care of his safety to the heathen gods. From this circumstance, he was 

''^ Gibbon. 



DEATH OF JULIAN. 19 

afterwards called the Apostate. The Gauls, who had revolted from Constan- 
tius when he required them to leave their native province, now took an oath 
to follow Julian wherever he should lead them, were it even to the ends of 
the earth. 

Julian was well aware of the importance of activity in the commence- 
ment of the anticipated struggle. He divided his army into three parts, at the 
head of one of which he plunged into the Black Forest, reached the Danube, 
and passed down that river in boats. By this movement he succeeded in 
capturing the important city of Sirmium, where he was joined by the other 
division of his army. He then seized the pass of Succi, in Mount Hsemus, 
which separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia. Constantius left the 
prosecution of the war with the Persians, to combat for the throne. But on 
his way he was attacked by a fever, and died at the little town of Mopsu- 
crenae, in the forty-fifth year of his age.* 

Julian the Apostate began his reign with the reformation of the luxurious 
habits of the court. His abjuration of the dominant religion, which he wished 
gradually to annihilate, was an error in policy which he must have discovered 
to his cost, had his reign been prolonged. But though he gave a preference 
to his fellow-believers, in civil and military employments, and forbade the 
Christians from becoming schoolmasters, he proclaimed a general toleration ; 
the pagans were obliged to open their temples and offer victims, and the dif- 
ferent sects of Christians were conunanded to abstain from harassing and 
tormenting each other. 

Julian might now have indulged his philosophic disposition to an unlimited 
extent ; but he had been smitten with a thirst for military renown, and aspired 
to the conquest of the East. He refused peace to Sapor, and marched into 
Asia at the head of a formidable army. He w-as at first successful ; but he 
allowed himself to be misled by a deserter, was surrounded by Sapor, and 
fell mortally w^ounded, three years after his accession to the throne. (June 
26, A.D. 853.) 

Jovian, a fervent Christian, now assumed the purple, with the consent 
of the officers and soldiers. He endeavoured to effect a retreat, but the per- 
severing energy of the Persians prevented him from advancing further than 
Dura, a hundred miles from the province of Corduene. Jovian there concluded 
a treaty of peace with Sapor, by which he restored to the Persians all the 
territory that had been conquered from them since the year 297. By this 
treaty the five provinces beyond the Tigris, with the cities of Nisibis, Singara, 
and the Moor's camp, were given up, and a truce was concluded for thirty 
years. The emperor who made this most inglorious treaty, the first by 
which the Roman empire had abandoned conquered territory to an enemy, 
did not long survive his disgrace. Whilst hastening towards the capital, he 

* Gibbon — Keightley — Heeren. 



20 SUCCESSORS OF CONSTAN TINE. 

was one morning found dead in his bed, at Dadastana, a little town on the 
frontiers of Eithynia. He was but thirty- three years- old, and had only reigned 
eiffht months. Of the manv causes which are assioned for his death, the 
most probable is that which ascribes it to his having slept near a large char- 
coal fire in a newly-plastered room.* 

The army proclaimed Valentinian at Nice in his stead, and almost imme- 
diately forced him to nominate a colleague. He chose his brother Valens, 
and assigned him the eastern prefecture of the empire, reserving to himself 
the government of the West. In the year 367, he created his son Gratian 
Augustus with himself. Though he was in many respects a cruel prince, the 
reign of Valentinian is distinguished for the religious toleration which he main- 
tained. His brother Valens having adopted the opinion of the Arians, was 
not very popular in the East, a circumstance of which Procopius took advan- 
tage to instigate the people to an insurrection. It was quelled with some 
difficulty, and its leader slain. 

Meanwhile the Allemanni had been engaged in war with Valentinian, who, 
after triumphing over them, resolved to provide for the future defence of 
Gaul by constructing a chain of forts and castles, along the banks of the 
Rhine, from its source to the ocean. 

The houses of the ancient Gauls were generally round and spacious, 
founded on stone, and constructed of wood and earth. They were supported 
by posts, protected by hurdles, and covered with a conical roof, either thatched 
or made with straw worked with clay. The light was admitted by a narrow 
door, and by still narrower loopholes. A hole cut in the roof gave passage 
to the smoke of the hearth, which was constructed of three stones united at 
right angles. The population scattered through the country rushed at the 
cry of war to shut themselves up with their herds and moveable property in 
vast enclosures, formed by trees felled in the middle of woods or marshes. 
The habitations of the chiefs were little fortresses, defended by rocks, by the 
seacoast, the course of a river, or an impenetrable marsh. 

The villages were open, or defended by simple trenches filled with fas- 
cines. Some were surrounded with walls, and fortified by a collection of 
stones, beams, and earth, which added variety to the symmetrical appearance, 
and resisted alike the assaults of the battering ram and the approaches of 
fire. The capital cities of Armorica were doubtless fortified in this manner ; 
the rest of the country had no cities, properly so called. 

All the Gauls were soldiers. Each mother made her new-born child kiss 
the naked sword of its father. This was the infant's baptism. From time to 
time the chief of each village measured the young men with a girdle, and 
those whom intemperate or idle habits had rendered corpulent, were heavily 
fined. Foreign expeditions were made by enlisting able-bodied men ; but when 

* Gibbon — Keightley. 



REVOLT OF FIRM US. 



21 




VILLAGE OF THE ANCIENT GAni.S. 



their own country was invaded, every man was required to arm in her defence. 
Treachery or cowardice in this respect was punished by the loss of the nose, 
cars, or eyes of the offender. 

As sohliers, the Gauls were characterized by courapje and impetuosity ; 
but their wilil and intractable disposition rendered them impatient of military disci- 
pline. Among their most formidable enemies were the invaders of their sea coast. 

The pirates of the north, united under the name of Saxons, now infested 
the coasts of Britain and Gaul. Severus, the master of the infantry, marched 
against them, and by a dishonourable breach of a newly-made treaty, succeeded 
in cutting a large body of them to pieces. 

In Britain, the Picts and Scots, from the northern parts of the island, were 
pouring their savage hordes into the defenceless provinces, and spreading deso- 
lation far and .wide. The Spanish Count Theodosius was sent against them 
with success. He then returned and directed the operations against the Alle- 
manni, until the emperor was forced to despatch him to Africa, to quell a 
revolt. A Moorish prince, named Firmus, was in arms against the Roman 
governor, Romanus, who had exercised his power with the greatest tyranny 
(A. D. 372.) Theodosius first committed him to safe custody, and then 
reduced Firmus to the last extremity. To prevent being captured, the 
African prince embraced a voluntary death. By bribery and forgeries, the 



22 THE SUCCESSORS OF CONS TAN TINE. 

guilty Romanus escaped punishment, whilst the brave and virtuous Theodosius 
was seized and beheaded at Carthage by the successor of Valentinian, on the 
vague suspicion that he was become too powerful for a subject. (A. D. 376.)* 

During the war in Africa, the Emperor Valentinian was himself engaged 
in the prosecution of hostilities against the Quadans and Sarmatians. He died 
in consequence of the bursting of a blood-vessel, while passionately reproach- 
ing the envoys of the Quadans, who sought peace in the most humble man- 
ner. At the time of his death, his son Gratian, who was seventeen years 
of age, resided at Treves. Merobandes and Equitius, two officers of rank, 
took advantage of his absence to increase the number of the emperors. Valen- 
tinian, aged four years, the young son of the late emperor, was brought to 
the camp and invested wuth the purple. Gratian accepted his young colleague, 
and acted towards him the part of a brother and a guardian. (A. D. 375.) 

Valens now found himself obliged to take the field against a formidable 
enemy, the Huns, whose entrance into Europe gave rise to the great popular 
migration, by which the Roman empire in the West may be said to have been 
overthrown. The immediate consequence was the admission of the greater 
part of the Visigoths into the Roman empire. This occasioned a war, which 
cost the Emperor Valens his life. 

The Huns, who were a nomad people of Asia, belonged to the great 
Mongolian race. Their history can be traced back to about 209 B. C, when 
the Chinese built the great wall to resist their inroads. The Huns were after- 
wards masters of Mongolia, and the greatest part of the north of Asia, as far 
as the Caspian Sea, and the borders of Thibet. 

The Chinese were for centuries their most formidable enemies, and finally 
succeeded in driving them towards the West. In the reign of Augustus, they 
were settled near the Caspian Sea, with the Alans on the south-west, and 
occupied the frontiers of the Roman empire ; while spreading to the north 
and south, they still carried on wars with the Chinese. But when the To-pa 
or To-ten, who dwelt on the river Amour, spread themselves on the west of 
China, and drove the Sienpi from their possessions, at the beginning of the 
fourth century, the Huns again pressed to the Caspian Sea and Pontus Eux- 
inus. After a bloody struggle with the Moors, they united with them to pass 
the Pontus Euxinus, and attack the Goths, (376,) and thus ultimately pro- 
duced the general irruption of the barbarians into the Roman empire, as will 
be seen in the sequel. 

The Goths, divided into Ostrogoths and Visigoths, were separated from 
each other by the Dnieper. The Ostrogoths wx're either reduced to submission 
or driven from their country. The bravest portion, with their infant sovereign, 
Witheric, penetrated to the Dniester, on whose banks Athanaric, the judge or 
ruler of the Visigoths, had determined to defend himself. But he was cora- 

* Keightley. 



INVASION OF THE VISIGOTHS. 23 

pelled to retire to the hills, where the greater part of his people lost their 
courage and compelled their two other judges, Fritigern and Alavivus, to lead 
them to the Danube and implore a refuge in the Roman empire. Valens 
granted them a settlement within the bounds of the empire, on condition that 
they should deliver up their arms before passing the river. But the barba- 
rians eluded this condition by sacrificing their wealth and their women to the 
avarice and lust of the Roman officers ; and a powerful Gothic army was soon 
encamped on the hills and plains of Lower Moesia. (A.D. 376.)* 

Such a formidable host should have been dehcately managed ; but Lupi- 
cinus and Maximus, the governors of the province, thought only of indulging 
their avarice, and by furnishing to them the most loathsome food at the high- 
est prices, they drew from them all their property and most of their children. 
Their patience became thus exhausted, and the governors, terrified at their 
menaces, collected all the troops at their command into an army about their 
own persons. Thus the troops were drawn away from the Danube, and the 
Ostrogoths, who had been denied the privilege granted to their predecessors, 
seized the opportunity and crossed the Danube. The Visigoths, in compliance 
with the commands of the Roman general, advanced to Marcianopolis, seventy 
miles inland, where they were denied a market. Difficulties ensued, which 
resulted in a pitched battle, in which the Romans were totally defeated. In 
revenge for their former sufferings, the Goths perpetrated enormities of every 
kind upon the unhappy people who fell into their hands. A large Roman 
army was sent against them, and a battle which lasted from dawn till dusk 
was fought, without material advantage on either side. The Romans then 
fortified their lines, intending to confine the enemy to the position they occu- 
pied, till they should be reduced by the sure operation of famine. But they 
were surprised by the intelligence that the Visigoths had formed an alliance 
with the Ostrogoths, who were advancing to their aid, having, in addition to 
their own force, a considerable body of Huns and Alans, marshalled under 
their banners. Fearful of being surrounded, the Romans raised the siege of 
the Gothic camp, and their enemies rapidly spread devastation to the shores 
of the Hellespont. 

Valens had early sought the aid of his nephew Gratian, and that empe- 
ror was preparing to lead the forces of the West against the Goths, when 
the Allemanni, probably acting in concert with the Goths, crossed the Rhine, 
forty thousand strong. Gratian gave them battle at Colmar, in Alsace : their 
king was slain, and their entire host, save five thousand, cut to pieces. The 
gallant young emperor then invaded their country, and forced them to sue 
for peace. Meanwhile Valens had set out from Constantinople to take the 
command in person ; and his flatterers urged him to lose no time in bringing 
the war to a close by a decisive action, before Gratian could arrive to share 

* Gibbon. 



^4 THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 

in the glory of the victory. This was precisely what Fritigern wished, and 
he secured its adoption by a stratagem similar to that practised by Themis- 
tocles at Salamis. The emperor was but too successfully deceived. The Goths 
amused him with fruitless negotiations until their reinforcements had arrived, 
and then inflicted on his army a more terrible defeat than any the Roman 
arms had experienced since the day of Cannae. Scarcely a third part of the 
army escaped from the field. The counts Trajan, Sebastian, Valerian, and 
Equitius, with thirty-six other officers of rank, were among the slain. 
(A.D. 378.) 

The fate of the emperor is uncertain : some accounts make him to have 
fallen at nightfall, mortally wounded, amid heaps of the common soldiers ; others 
say that when he fell he was carried into a neighbouring cottage, where his at- 
tendants were surrounded by the enemy while attempting to dress his wound. 
Straw and wood were heaped against the doors, and the house was burned, 
with all therein, except one soldier, w^ho escaped out of a window, and sur- 
vived to tell the story. The Goths having failed in an attack upon the walls 
of Adrianople, retired with their booty to the northern provinces, and spread 
their ravages as far as the Adriatic* 

Gratian was on the march to aid his uncle, when he heard of the victory 
of the Goths. He saw the necessity of selecting a colleague who could take 
charge of the East. His choice fell upon Theodosius, the son of the general 
of that name who had been put to death in Africa. Theodosius was invested 
with the purple at Sirmium, A. D. 379, and he immediately resorted to a 
Fabian policy, by which, in the course of four years, the army of Athanaric 
was added to the number of his own troops, and the victors of Adrianople 
became subjects of the empire.f 

Gratian, when death had removed the able advisers with whom his father 
had surrounded him, fell under the guidance of men of a different character. 
In consequence, he gradually lost the esteem of both the people and the array. 
When Maximus, having been proclaimed emperor by the revolted troops in 
Britain, crossed over to Gaul, Gratian suddenly found all the troops of Gaul 
opposed to him, and the gates of all the cities shut against him. He was 
slain near Lyons, as he was rising from the supper-table, August 25th, 383, 
and his brother Valentinian petitioned in vain for his body. By promising not 
to interfere with the young Valentinian, Maximus procured an acknowledgment 
of his title to the empire from Theodosius, who probably feared an invasion of 
the barbarians, should he attempt to avenge the murder of his patron.J 

The new emperor remained at rest for four years, but he finally began 
to cast an eye of cupidity upon the possessions of Valentinian, whom he 
nearly succeeded in capturing. The young prince fled with his mother and 
his sister Galla to seek aid from the emperor of the East, and an alliance 

* Keiglitley. Gibbon. Taylor. t Keightley. t lb. Ileercn. 



TIIEODOSIUS AND ST. AMBROSE. 25 

was concluded between the two princes, which was sealed by the marriage 
of Galla with Theodosius. 

The royal bridegroom then set out to seek the forces of the usurper and 
traitor. Maximus was routed at Siscia, on the banks of the Save, and cap- 
tured and beheaded at Aquileia. His son was also put to death, and the 
whole of the West became subject to the rule of the young Valentinian. 
(A.D. 388.) 

Theodosius remained in Italy for three years after his victory, regulating 
the affairs of the empire for his colleague. While he was there, the people 
of Thessalonica, becoming enraged at the conduct of Botheric, the commander 
of the garrison, murdered him and his principal officers, and dragged their 
bodies about the streets. (A. D. 388.) Theodosius gave way to his naturally 
choleric temper, on learning the insult thus offered to his servant. He gave 
orders for a military execution, and afterwards attempted to recall it, but it 
was too late. The Thessalonians were invited to the circus, to witness the 
games: they came to the number of seven thousand. (A.D. 390.) The sig- 
nal was given, the soldiers commenced the work of massacre, and all were 
slain. Ambrose was at this time Archbishop of Milan, and the part which 
he took on that occasion shows the height to which ecclesiastical power had 
already attained. He wrote to the emperor that he had been warned in a 
vision not to offer the oblation in his name or presence, and advised him not 
to think of receiving the Eucharist with blood-stained hands. The intrepid 
bishop refused him admittance to the cathedral, and the lord of the Roman 
world was obliged to lay aside his imperial robe, and appear in the posture 
of a suppliant in the midst of the church of Milan, soliciting with tears the 
pardon of his sin. He was not restored to the communion of the faithful until 
he had accomplished a penance of eight months.* 

The troops of Valentinian were commanded by Count Arbogast, a Frank, 
who had held a high rank in the service of both Gratian and Theodosius. 
When the departure of the eastern emperor had removed the principal obsta- 
cle, he resolved to take advantage of the weakness of the young prince, and 
raise himself to the empire. He corrupted the army, filled the offices with 
his creatures, and made the emperor little better than a prisoner in his palace 
at Vienne. Valentinian wrote to inform Theodosius of his situation ; but, im- 
patient of delay, he sent for Arbogast, and dismissed him from his post. 
" You have not given me my authority, and you cannot take it away," said 
the general, and he indignantly tore up the document containing his dismissal. 
The prince snatched a sword from one of the guards, but he was not suf- 
fered to use it. A few days after he was privately strangled, and a report 
was spread that he had died by his own hand. (May loth, A.D. 392.) 

Arbogast, not yet prepared to assume the purple himself, clotheil Eugc- 

* Keiglitley. 
Vol. II. 4 



26 



THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 







THEODOSinS AND ST. AMBROS: 



niiis, one of his own creatures, with it ; and sent an embassy to Theodo- 
siiis, lamenting the decease of Valentinian, and beseeching him to ratify the 
clioice of his successor, already made by the people and the army. But 
the tears of his lovely bride Galla induced Theodosius to avenge his brother- 
in-law, and he marched for Italy, after two years consumed in preparation. 
Eugenius was taken and put to death (Sept. 6th, 314) ; the more wicked Arbo- 
gast avoided a similar fate by committing suicide, after wandering some days 
through the mountains.* 

Theotlosius survived his victory only five months. He had undermined 
his constitution by indulgence, and he died of dropsy at Milan (Jan. 17tli, 
A. D. 385), leaving his empire to his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius. 



Keighllcy. llcercn. Taylor. 



CHARACTER OF THEODOSIUS. 27 

Suddenly called from a private station to the head of the Eastern Empire, 
Theodosius had remained true to his principles and early rules of conduct. 
He obtained his elevation in the most honourable manner, without intrigue 
and without court interest, and he held the power placed in his hands with the 
strictest regard to truth and justice. His defects were, a too slavish submis- 
sion to the intolerant ecclesiastics of his day, who forced him to the enact- 
ment of persecuting laws against heretics and pagans; a violence of temper, 
which led to the massacre of the Thessalonians ; and an over-fondness for the 
pleasures of the table, which brought him to a premature death, to the great 
injury of the empire. His efforts to preserve the boundaries of the empire, 
not a province of which was lost before his death, required an increase of 
taxes ; but, however oppressive this might be, we cannot impute it as a crime 
to the ruler. In an empire so enfeebled in itself, and which, nevertheless, 
had powerful foes on every side to contend with, it followed that every 
active reign would be oppressive. Yet never before had the internal depopu- 
lation of the empire made it necessary to take so many barbarians into Roman 
pay as under this reign ; whence naturally followed a change in the arms and 
tactics of the Roman armies.* 

After the death of Theodosius, the empires of the East and West became 
totally distinct and independent states. The former was at first governed by 
Arcadius, the eldest son of the late emperor, the Western Empire was ruled by 
Honorius, who was but eleven years old at the time of his accession. Their 
father left both the emperors under the care of Stilicho, a man of great talent, 
who had commanded both the cavalry and infantry of the empire. The Pre- 
fect of the East was Rufinus, a Gaul, who had gained the favour of the late 
emperor by his dissimulation and address. This man was the chief adviser of 
Arcadius, while Stilicho remained with young Honorius in Italy. Rufinus 
almost immediately commenced a course of conduct, which procured for him 
immense wealth, and the hatred and envy of all. He intended to effect the 
union of his daughter with the emperor ; but an errand of cruelty took him 
to Antioch, and his schemes were defeated in his absence. 

The emperor was wedded to the beautiful orphan, Eudoxia, the daughter 
of the Frank general, Bauto. Rufinus still possessed so much influence with 
the emperor as to induce him to forbid Stilicho to advance with the troops 
which were marching eastward under his command. Accordingly, Stilicho 
remained at Thessalonica, and sent on the soldiers under the command of 
Gainas, a Goth, whom he intrusted with the execution of a plan for the 
destruction of the ambitious Rufinus. The soldiers were well acquainted with 
the design of the commander, and they carefully preserved the secret, and 
co-operated with Gainas in effecting the downfall of the haughty minister. 
Rufinus was slain at the side of the emperor, and his body was treated with 
every species of indignity by the populace whom he had oppressed. (A. D. 395.) 

* Gibbon. Keiglitley. Heeren. 



28 THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 

In the following year the Goths ,a(lvancecl into Greece, wliere they were 
met by Stilicho. Alaric, the young and intrepid leader of the Goths, circum- 
vented the minister in his attempts to surround them, until he had successmlly 
terminated a negotiation with Arcadius, the emperor of the East, for his 
appointment to the military command of Eastern lUyricum. 

Stilicho, having received orders to depart from the dominions of Arcadius, 
had his attention directed to Africa, where Gildo, the brother of the unfor- 
tunate Firmus, had risen, under the nominal title of Governor of Africa, to be 
an almost independent nder. Theodosius had neither noticed his excesses nor 
his absolute tyranny, but the wily African had no favour to expect from Sti- 
licho. He therefore tendered his allegiance to Arcadius, whose ministers sig- 
nified their title to the province. Stilicho caused the senate to proclaim the 
faithless governor a public enemy, and sent an army against him untler the 
charge of his own brother Mascezel, whom he had exiled, after killing his 
children. The troops of the rebel submitted without a battle, and he ended 
his existence by suicide. (A. D. 398.) Mascezel was received with great 
favour on his return, but he had roused the envy of Stilicho, who has been 
charged with his death. He was riding with Stilicho over a bridge, when his 
horse threw him into the river ; Stilicho smiled, the attendants gave no help, 
and the general was drowned.* 

The great Alaric was chosen by his people, King of the Visigoths, in 
addition to his other office of Governor of Illyricum. For some years he pur- 
sued a dubious policy between the Emperors of the East and the West, but 
he finally invaded Italy, and besieged the Emperor Honorius in the town of 
Asta, in Liguria. Stilicho was absent, employed in collecting an army. On 
his return, he succeeded in relieving the young emperor, and defeating Alaric, 
who repassed the Po for the purpose of inflicting a blow on another part of 
the empire. But a second defeat forced him to make a treaty, by which 
Italy was for a time delivered from the Goths. (A. D. 403.) Fearing another 
Gothic invasion, Honorius fixed his residence at Ravenna (A. D. 404), which 
continued for more than three centuries to be the seat of government in Italy. 

Two years after the departure of Alaric, a numerous host of Germans, 
estimated at 200,000 fighting men, with their wives, children and servants, 
poured into Italy. Stilicho pursued a cautious policy in the field ; surrounding 
them with impregnable lines of circumvallation, and forcing them by famine 
to surrender. Their leader Radagaisus was beheaded, and the common bar- 
barians sold for slaves. (A.D. 40o.) But Stilicho having entered into an alli- 
ance with Alaric, for the purpose of wresting from the empire of the East 
the province of Illyricum, was overreached by the intrigues of Olympius, a 
man who had been raised to the position he enjoyed in the emperor's regard 
by Stilicho himself. He took advantage of the weakness of the emperor, and 

* Zosimus. Gibbon. Keighlley. 



CHARACTER OF A LARIC. 29 

of the jealousy between the Roman and foreign sokliers, to accuse his bene- 
fiictor of aspiring at the sovereignty, and Stilicho was executed. (Aug. 2'Sd, 
408.) Tlius the folly of Honorius lost to his arms the only commander who 
was capable of defending his dominions, whose fame and fortune depended on 
the prosperity of the state, and who hatl repeatedly defeated the barbarians, 
to whom it was asserted he designed to deliver Italy. 

The virtues of Stilicho being no longer formidable, Alaric hesitated not 
to pay to them a great and worthy tribute. He announced himself as the 
friend of the murdered minister, and his determination to avenge his fall. In 
that character he appeared in Italy in the same year. 

Rome, for the first time since the days of Hannibal, saw a foreign enemy 
before her gates ; she purchased peace, but failing to fulfil the conditions, 
Alaric was again beneath her walls, became master of her seaport, and forced 
her citizens to acknowledge as emperor Attains, the prefect of the city. 
( A. D. 409.) After an unsuccessful attempt to capture Ravenna, where Hono- 
rius resided, Alaric assumed the diadem, made himself master of Rome by 
force, and gave it up to be plundered by his troops. (Aug. 24th, 410.) He 
died soon afterwards in Lower Italy, where he was projecting the capture 
of Sicily and Africa. 

This great leader, the first to teach to barbarians the weakness of the 
mistress of the world, will ever be distinguished for the firm and judicious 
character of his policy. Uniting by his genius, his noble birth, and his glori- 
ous exploits, the whole body of his nation under his standards, Alaric was 
enabled at the same time to infuse into his subjects his own boldness and 
cunning, and to restrain their ardour until he w^as prepared to invade the 
dominions of the West. When defeated on the plains near Asta, he withdrew 
from the battle with the greatest part of his cavalry entire and unbroken, 
and rising superior to misfortune, he derived new resources from adversity, 
and resolved to shake the very walls of Rome itself. Such a spirit was invin- 
cible ; the proud mistress of the world paid a heavy retribution for the suffer- 
ings she had caused to so many cities, countries, and nations, in the days of 
her splendour and power. A thousand years had she been engaged in the 
collection of treasures — treasures wrun": from the blood of allies and enemies 
— treasures which now came at once into the possession of the mighty Goth. 
But Alaric was a Christian, and the least barbarous of all the conquerors 
that ravaged the Roman empire. Even his enemies praise his moderation, 
and accord their gratitude for his clemency in sparing not only the churches, 
but all who fled to them for shelter. The Romans rejoiced when he fell a 
prey to the king of terrors ; they hoped for the enjoyment of peace undis- 
turbed by the ravages of invaders ; but Alaric had taught to the barbarians 
the way to Rome, and the march of desolation was soon renewed. 

Adolphus, the brother-in-law and successor of Alaric, left the now ex- 
hausted Italy for Gaul, whence he proceeded into Spain, and founded the 



30 



THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 




A L AB IC. 



IdngJom of the Visigoths. While in Gaul, he married Placidia, the sister of 
llonorius, whom he had carried with him either as a prisoner or as a host- 
age. On his death (Aug. 415), she returned to her brother, who married her 
to Constantius, whom he afterwards associated in the empire. This honour 
was conferred upon Constantius as a reward for his valour in vanquishing 
and putting to death Constantine (Nov. 28th, 411), a usurper, who appeared in 
Britain and Gaul, during the war in Italy. The new Augustus did not long 
survive his elevation ; he died in 420, and Placidia retired to Constantinople, 
where she remained until the death of Honorius.* 

The dropsy carried off the feeble and contemptible monarch of the West 
(August 15th, 423), after an inglorious reign of twenty-eight years. After his 
death, his secretary, John, usurped the government, but was defeated by the 
Eastern emperor, Theodosius II. The nephew of Honorius, Valentinian III,, 
was then raised to the throne under the guardianship of his mother, Placidia. 
Besides the Gothic kingdom established in Spain and Eastern Gaul (A. D. 412), 
by Adolphus and his successor Wallia, the Franks, the Burgundians, and other 
barbarous tribes had cut off other portions of Gaul; and Britain and Armorica 
had become independent. The Britons had so degenerated that they were 
unable to resist their barbarous neighbours, the Picts and Scots ; they there- 
fore applied for aid to the warlike tribes of the Angles and Saxons. The 



* Ileorcn. 



tETIUS AND BONIFACE. 81 

summons was readily obeyed ; but when the Picts and Scots were repelled, 
the defenders took possession of the redeemed territory, and named it Angle- 
land, since contracted into England. Britain was never after subject to the 
Roman emperors. 

In the meantime, the profligate administration of the Empress Eudoxia, 
and the eunuch Eutropius, had disgraced the reign of Arcadius in the East. 
The most illustrious persons fell victims to their cruelty, and the empress 
finally compassed the murder of her own colleague, Eutropius. St. Chr}sos- 
tom, the eloquent Bishop of Constantinople, boldly met the vices of the coui t 
and the church with the thunders of his eloquence ; but the guilty parties 
united in procuring his deposition and ruin, and he was hurried to the grave 
by his revengeful oppressors, under the name and authority of Arcadius. The 
younger Theodosius succeeded to the purple (A. D. 408), under the direction 
of his sister Pulcheria, who ruled the East with much of the spirit of her 
ancestor, the great Theodosius, for more than forty years. Placidia governed 
the West at the same time, though with far less ability. 

The armies of the West were commanded by two generals, ^Etius and Boni- 
face. The former had been engaged in the service of the secretary John, and had 
brought a force of 60,000 Huns to the confines of Italy, for the purpose of aiding 
him, when he heard of his death. The Hunnish army w^as then sent back, and he 
entered into the service of Valentinian, and the confidence of Placidia. He em- 
ployed his influence for the destruction of his rival, who easily fell into the snare 
laid for him. iEtius persuaded Placidia to recall Boniface, and at the same time 
assured that ofiicer that his recall was the first step towards his death, and advised 
him to disobey the imperial mandate. Boniface implicitly believed the assertions 
of his enemy, and repelled by arms the first attacks made on him ; but he doubted 
his abiUty to resist single-handed, and therefore proposed an alliance to Genseric, 
King of the Vandals, who had forcibly obtained possession of the province of 
BcEtica, afterwards called from them Andalusia. Genseric landed in Africa 
(May, 429), with a force of 50,000 Vandals, Alans, Goths, and others, and his 
standard was followed by the Moors and the persecuted Donatists. Boniface 
discovered the duplicity of iEtius, and the error he had committed, when too 
late. He returned to his allegiance, and requested Genseric to leave the pro- 
vince ; but the Vandal hero refused, and defeated him in a pitched battle. 
Boniface was besieged in Hippo Regius, the modern Bona, for fourteen months, 
when he was reinforced from the East. He then ventured upon another bat- 
tle, but was again defeated. (A.D. 431). He finally abandoned the province, 
and returned to Italy, where Placidia received him kindly, and raised hhn to 
high rank. 

Genseric had still two important fortresses to reduce ; Cirta and Carthage, 
and it was not till the tenth year after his landing in Africa that the latter 
was taken, and by surprise, not force.* (Oct. IS, 439). 

* Keiglitlcy. 



32 THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 

The quarrel between iEtius and Bonilace was decided by a battle, in 
in which Boniface was victorious; but he was mortally wounded in the engage- 
ment. (A.D. 432.) iEtius was proclaimed a rebel, and forced to seek safety 
among the Huns. By the aid of a large body of that people, with whom 
he always remained on the most friendly terms, he dictated terms of peace to 
the empress, and in effect governed the empire. But notwithstanding his 
friendly relations with the Huns, he was unable to preserve the empire from 
the encroachments of their formidable ruler, Attila, called " The scourge of 
God." That able monarch had extorted vast sums as the price of forbearance 
from the Byzantine empire, and had threatened war against the Emperor 
Marcian, whom Pulcheria had made her husband and nominal emperor on the 
death of Theodosius II. Theodoric, the son of the great Alaric, occupied the 
throne of the Visigoths after the decease of Wallia. He had attempted to 
enlarge his dominions at the expense of the Romans ; but i^^tius successfully 
defended the invaded country, and Theodoric made peace. A war soon after 
followed between him and Genseric, who had shamefully mutilated his wife, 
and sent her home to her father, Theodoric. Genseric called for aid upon Attila, 
and Theodoric desisted from his intended invasion of Africa. Attila was incited 
to arms by Honoria, the sister of Valentinian, who desired to escape from a nun- 
nery in Constantinople, where she had been confined in consequence of the disco- 
very of an intrigue which she had had with her chamberlain. Hating a life of 
celibacy, she sent a trusty eunuch to Attila with a ring as the pledge of her 
affection. The Hunnish monarch immediately demanded her and a share of 
the empire. His demand being refused, he suddenly invaded Gaul, every- 
where slaughtering the inhabitants, and giving their houses and provisions to 
the flames. The heads of the murdered inhabitants were suspended as trophies 
round the bodies of their horses : and no enormity which barbarism could in- 
vent was omitted in their treatment of the unfortunate Romans. Their career 
of cruelty was, however, cut short at the great battle of Chalons, where the 
allies of the empire, led by iEtius and Theodoric, inflicted upon them a ter- 
rible defeat. (A.D. 452). The latter, however, lost his life in the conflict. 
Attila retired beyond the frontiers, but in the ensuing spring he poured his 
armies like a torrent into Italy, and laid waste the peninsula. He was 
induced to retire from Italy on receiving an immense sum as the dower of the 
Princess Honoria ; but he threatened dreadful vengeance if she were not deli- 
vered to his ambassador. The fall of the empire was delayed by his death, 
which happened in the following year. Having drank too freely on the occa- 
sion of marrying a new wife in addition to the number which he already had, 
he burst a blood-vessel anil expired. (A. D. 453). 

By a description which Jornandes has left us of the person of Attila, we 
learn tliat he had a large head, a flat nose, broad shoulders, and a short and 
ill-formed body. His walk was j)roud, his voice strong and well-toned. Savage 
though he was, pity Ibuml a {)lace in his bosom, and his assurance of pardon 



CHARACTER OF ATTILA 



33 




ATTIL A. . 



to a suppliant enemy was never violated. His reputation for justice and indul- 
gence was doubtless the cause of the submission of so many warlike tribes to 
his control ; and the rapidity with which his vast empire fell to pieces after 
his death, shows how vastly superior was his genius to that of his sons and 
successors. Not satisfied with being acknowledged as their bravest warrior and 
most skilful general, he sought to inspire the tribes over which he ruled with 
a supernatural reverence for his person. Superstitious to a degree himself, he 
well knew how to take advantage of the same quality in his countrymen. 
They reverenced the presiding genius of war, but knew not how to make a 
corporeal representation of him, nor to forin an abstract idea of his nature. 
Attila therefore supplied them with a symbol ; he gave out that he had found 
the sword of Mars, and then, as its rightful possessor, iisserted his holy and 
indisputable title to the dominion of the earth. The success of this scheme 
induced him to follow it up with another. He attributed the murder of his 
Itrother Bleda to a supernatural influence, and his followers celebrated the hor- 
rid deed with rejoicings as for a victory. As a general, he usually tempered 
his valour with prudence, yet when occasion required it, he exposed his person 
with the rashness of a private soldier, animating and encouraging his troops 
by his voice, his presence, and his example. Like Alaric, he sulFered neither 
defeat nor difficulty to impair his spirit, reputation, or resources, and his beha- 
viour after being defeated by --Etius w^as compared by his enemies to that of 
a lion encompassed in his den, threatening the hunters with redoubled fury. 
But, unlike the great Visigothic monarch, he gloried in his savage and destruc- 
VOL. II. 5 



34 THE SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE. 

tive spirit, frequently involved in indiscriminate massacre the whole of a con- 
quered people, and caused himself everywhere to be known by the title given 
to him by a hermit of Gaul : " The scourge of God." His table was served with 
wooden cups and platters ; flesh was his only food, and the conqueror of the 
north never tasted the luxury of bread.* It was a saying worthy of his fero- 
cious pride, that grass never grew where his horse had trod. 

The worthless and dissolute Valentinian feared and hated his able minis- 
ter, and, instigated by his favourites, he resolved to rid himself of the man 
who alone of all his subjects could support his throne. ^Etius came incau- 
tiously to the palace, and addressed an intemperate speech to the emperor. 
Valentinian drew his sword, for the first time in his life, and plunged it into 
his bosom ; his guards followed the example, and ^tius expired with a hun- 
dred wounds. (A.D. 454.) His principal friends all shared the same fate. 

iEtius was universally celebrated as the terror of the barbarians and the 
support of the republic, and his fate was regretted and his abilities esteemed 
within the walls of the palace itself. The emperor condescended to solicit the 
approbation of a Roman in his service for the murder, but he had applied to a 
man incapable of dissimulation even to a tyrant. " I am ignorant, sir, of your 
motives or provocations ; I only know that you have acted like a man who 
cuts off his right hand with his left." Much has been written concerning the 
crimes and the treason of ^tius, but at the time of his murder, he stood in 
the position of the protector of the empire, the conqueror of her most fero- 
cious enemy. "If the early acts of his life," says a learned commentator, 
" the introduction of the Huns into Italy, and of the Vandals into Africa, 
were among the proximate causes of the ruin of the empire, his murder w^as 
the signal for its almost immediate downfall."! 

Valentinian was speedily rewarded for his cowardice and treachery. Hav- 
ing invaded the domestic peace of the patrician Maximus, he was assassinated 
by two of his guards, who had formerly been the domestics of ^Etius, and 
who were instigated to revenge their master by the patrician. (March 16th, 455.) 
Maximus became his successor, and on the death of his wife, married the late 
emperor's widow. Having in an unguarded hour revealed to Eudoxia the 
part he had taken in the murder of Valentinian, whom, worthless as he was, 
she had tenderly loved, she sent a secret message to Genseric, inviting him 
to come to her aid. The Vandal king entered the Tiber with a large arma- 
ment ; Maximus was slain by his subjects (June 12th, 455) ; the city of 
Rome was delivered to pillage, attended with every species of atrocity ; and 
the Empress Eudoxia, with her two daughters, and thousands of other captives, 
w^ere embarked for Africa. During twenty years Genseric was the terror of 
the East and the West. He commanded his numerous fleet in person, and 
devastated all the coast of the Mediterranean. After his death, in 477, the 

* Gibbon. t Milman — Notes to Gibbon. 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMIMRE. 35 

Vandal kingdom was incessantly agitated by religious persecutions, or ha- 
rassed by the Moors, until Belisarius appeared on. the scene. 

The successor of Marcian, on the throne of the East, was Leo the Great 
(A. D. 457). He appeared to revive the long disused military elections of 
the empire. The Isaurian guard had displaced the Prsetorians, whose privi- 
leges they now assumed. On the death of Leo (Jan. 474), they chose Zeno, 
his son-in-law, to succeed him, and deposed his son, Leo IL But a revolu- 
tion deprived Zeno of the sceptre, and the empire fell into the hands of Basi- 
licus, who terminated by an edict of union the quarrels which divided the 
church. In 491, Anastasius, the Silentiary, was invested with the imperial 
dignity. He built Dara, in Armenia, to cover the Persian frontier, and sought 
to provide for the defence of Constantinople by building a wall from the 
Euxine to the Propontis. He relieved the people from many oppressive taxes ; 
but religious quarrels disturbed his reign, and on one occasion 100,000 of the 
inhabitants of the capital fell victims to their rancour. Justin I., a Thracian 
peasant, succeeded to the throne (A. D. 518) ; nine years afterwards the scep- 
tre came into the hands of his celebrated nephew, Justinian. 

After the death of Maximus, Avitus, a noble Gaul, was chosen Emperor 
of the West (A. D. 455), but Ricimer, the commander of the barbarian allies of 
Rome, deposed him, and gave the sceptre to Majorian. (A. D. 457.) The soldiers 
were dissatisfied with the choice, and dethroned him in turn. Ricimer then 
appointed Severus (A. D. 461), but he was forced by the Vandals to apply to Con- 
stantinople for aid, and to offer the nomination of an emperor to Leo the Great, 
who selected Anthemius as the best person to fill this high but dangerous 
station. A force was sent from the East against the Vandals in Africa ; but 
it was defeated, and compelled to return to Constantinople. (A.D.468.) Ricimer 
put Anthemius to death (A. D. 472), and chose Olybrius to succeed him. But 
the barbarian general and his puppet ruler both died within a few months, and 
Julius Nepos was made emperor by Leo. (A. D. 474.) Glycerins, an obscure sol- 
dier, disputed the succession with Nepos ; being unable, however, to con- 
tinue the contest, he resigned the sceptre and became Bishop of Salona. 
Nepos was deposed by Orestes, who had succeeded to the command of Rici- 
mer. He fled into Dalmatia, where the new-made bishop of Salona caused 
him to be assassinated. Orestes conferred upon his son Romulus Momillus the 
imperial dignity and the title of Augustulus ; but Odoacer, the leader of the 
German auxiliaries, took up arms, captured Orestes, and put him to death. 
(A. D. 476.) Augustulus soon after died a captive in Campania. Odoacer abo- 
lished the title of emperor, and assumed that of King of Italy. He was 
unable to defend the country against the invasions of the Ostrogoths, who 
hurled him from the throne and founded a ne\y empire. Thus ignominiously 
fell the empire of the West: that of the East endured for a thousand years 
longer, notwithstanding its intestine broils, and the continued attacks of the 
hosts of barbarians of the middle ages. 




CHAPTER II. 



®l)c 



if t!p« 






airlairiajiiia an tht 




URING the four hundred years- that the Romans 
were exclusive masters of Spain, the people of 
that province advanced rapidly in civilization and 
the knowledge of the arts, but the galling chain 
of Roman servitude broke the spirit and destroyed 
the patriotism, courage, and haiilihood of the proud 
Spaniards. The Visigoths met with no resistance 
from the Spaniards, when they attempted to found 
their kingdom in Spain and Gaul ; their only task 
was to subdue the barbarous invaders who had 
preceded them. The Alani were destroyed, and 
the Vandals driven into Belgium, while the Suevi 
under Hermanrich, founded a kingdom in Galicia, which did not foil under the 
Gothic dominion till the year 5Sd. In half a century they had extended their 
dominions over Aquitaine, and the whole of Spain ; thus enlarging tueir limits 
as the empire abandoned the provinces.* 

The Ostrogoths were powerful in Hungary, where they derived great 
improvement from their neighbours the Italians, and the subjects of the Eastern 
empire. The country north of the Danube towards the Theiss was occupied 
by the Longobardi, who had long ago abandoned their seats upon the Elbe. 
A nation calling themselves the Bojoari had been gradually formed in Bavaria, 
from remnants of the Rugi, Heruli, Scyrri, Turcilingi, and from the Suevie 



* Dcti Michal's Middle A<ios. 



(36) 



M E R O V .E U S . o7 

tribes, particularly the Marcomanni. The name of this nation points espe- 
cially to a Eohemian oritrin ; the Marcomanni coming from this country, which 
was more anciently called Boja or Bojos, transferred its name to the seats 
they occupied after the Danube districts had become free, and called them- 
selves Bojoari, or Bojovari.* 

The Allemanni were fixed in the eastern part of Switzerland, in Suabia, 
and as fiir as Cologne on both banks of the Rhine. The name of Alsatians 
was afterwards applied to those who dwelt on the left bank of the Rhine ; 
while the name of the country Suabia has preserved the appellation of Suevi, 
which about this time appears among them. The deepest obscurity hangs over 
the early history of the Thuringians, who are first noticed about the middle 
of the fifth century. Their seats extended from the present Hartz Mountains 
to Franconia. The Saxons retained their ancient seats and constitution in 
Lower Saxony and Westphalia, the Friesi being near them on the North Sea. 

The Salians who dwelt in the Netherlands, and the Ripuarians on the 
coast of the Rhine, were the most considerable tribes of the nation of Franks, 
which had its seat on the Lower Rhine, on the Maas and the Scheldt, as far 
as the Netherlands, and in the north of France. The name of Armorica w^as 
applied to an alliance of free cities, which had been established in the modern 
Brittany by fugitives from the hostility of the Picts in Britain. The Bur- 
gundi occupied South-Eastern France, Savoy, and Western Switzerland. Their 
chief cities were Geneva, Besangon, Lyons, and Vienne. They can be traced 
back to the country between the Oder and the Vistula, in the southern part 
of West Prussia. They were distinguished from the other Germans, by their 
living together in villages, whence, according to some w^'iters, they received 
their name of Burgundi, from the German word burge?!. Others, however, 
derive their name from gunt (combat), as alluding to the warlike character 
of the race, and make Burgundi mean the lance of war.f Early attached to 
Christianity and its humanizing influences, the Burgundians were the mildest 
of the conquering tribes of this period ; and many remains of Roman art found 
in that portion of France owe their preservation to the care of this peo- 
ple. The north-western coast of Africa was in the possession of the Vandals, 
and the Angles and Saxons were gradually augmenting their power in Britain. 

Germany in the east and north-east was left comparatively unoccupied by 
the southern and w^estern migrations ; and the Sclavonic tribes, who had long 
been seated on those boundaries, now took possession of the vacant lands, and 
the Germans who refused to follow their countrymen, became incorporated with 
the foreigners. I 

Among the petty chiefs who had fought as auxiliaries under iEtius in 
the battle of Chalons, A. D. 4ol, was Mcrovicus, the leader of the small but 

* Kohlrausch's History of Germany. t Malte Brim. Anthon. 

t Kohlraubcircj History uf Germany. 



38 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 




ELEVATION OF KINQ CLOVIS. 



renowned Frank race of Salians. The Salian Franks were remarkable for 
having established hereditary government in the family of their leader; the 
princes being distinguished from the rest of the nation by the custom of wear- 
ing long curls descending over the shoulders. To have these curls cut, either 
by force or voluntarily, was esteemed as a disgrace of the deepest dye. By 
aggressions on the Belgian and Lyonnese districts, Merovceus considerably 
enlarged the territory he had received at the death of his father. (A.D. 448.) 
The empire of the West expired during the reign of his successor Childeric. 
That prince, having been banished by his successor on account of his tyranny, 
sought refuge with the King of Thuringia. ^Egidius, a Roman, or Romanized 
Frank, conducted the government during his absence. Several years after his 
banishment, Childeric returned from his exile, carrying with him the wife of 
the Thuringian monarch, whom he had seduced in requital for the protection 
he had received. But a portion of his tribe returned to his government'; the 
rest remained true to ^Egidius. When that general died, his son Syagrius 
succeeded to his power, while the dominions of Childeric fell into the hands 
of his son Clovis, who, according to a remarkable custom of the Franks, 
was elevated on the shields of his countrymen, by way of inauguration as 



CLOVIS. 89 

their king. Syagrius collected a number of Romanized Gauls around his stand- 
ard, termed himself King of the Romans, and affected to govern in the right 
of the empire. He fixed his capital at Soissons ; that of Clovis was Tournay. 
The first act of the King: of the Franks was a declaration of war for the reco- 
very of what he regarded as his patrimony. Syagrius took the field against 
him ; but he was defeated in the first battle, and forced to flee for refuge and 
aid to Alaric, King of the Visigoths. Alaric and his guest w^ere concerting 
a plan of operations, when a messenger arrived from Clovis to assure the King 
of Toulouse that if he gave refuge to Syagrius, the war would be brought 
into his own country. Alaric was alarmed and intimidated by such boldness. 
He returned for answer that the fugitive was under safe guard at his court, 
and Syagrius was soon after executed. (A. D. 486.)* The provinces which 
had been subject to Syagrius now came into the possession of Clovis, who 
with some difficulty prevented his followers from resorting to pillage. A story 
told of one of his soldiers well represents the state of society which prevailed 
among the Franks as similar to that of a band of robbers. Rheims escaped 
from total ruin by being plundered. Among the booty taken was a very valua- 
ble vase, belonging to the Christian church of the city. The bishop sent to 
Soissons to entreat the restoration of the consecrated vessel, and Clovis, wil- 
ling to conciliate his new subjects, promised to grant their request. When 
the spoils came to be divided, the king sought to include the vase in his 
share, but a Frank warrior was displeased, and dealt a heavy blow upon the 
vase with his battle-axe {francisca), exclaiming, " Thou shalt have nothing 
but what falls to thy lot." The vase, however, was restored to the church, 
but the rough warrior was allowed for a time to go unpunished. Some ffime 
afterwards, Clovis, when reviewing his troops, took occasion to find f\xult with 
the arms of this man, and threw them on the ground. As the soldier stooped 
to pick them up, Clovis dealt him a blow with his own francisca on the 
head, reminding him, as he fell dying, of the vase of Soissons.f 

While the Franks were extending their dominions, their original seats were 
invaded by Basin, the King of Thuringia, with whom Childeric had taken 
refuge. He avenged the wrong which Childeric had committed by the most 
fearful and unheard-of atrocities upon the defenceless inhabitants who fell into 
his hands. Clovis was at Soissons when he heard of these outrages, and he 
immediately marched against the invader, drove him from the country, and 
imposed on him an annual tribute. 

The Burgundians preferred repose to the Axtigue and turmoils of war, and 
the King of the Visigoths had exhibited such pusillanimity in not protecting 
Syagrius, that Clovis determined to procure for his tribe the fertility, mild 
climate, and the commercial wealth of the south of France. He demanded of 
Gondebaud, the King of Burgundy, the hand of his niece Clotilda in marriage. 

* Michelet's Franco. Kolilrausrli's Germany. f Gregory of Tours. 



40 



ESTAniJSITMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 




I O R B R E A K I N- (j 1' IT E VASE. 



Clotilda was hated by her uncle, who, though he dared not refuse the demand 
of Clovis, employed an enemy of her house to stop the litter which was con- 
veying her to her future husband, and deprive her of the honour and hap- 
piness in store for her. The litter and the marriage-present were captured ; 
but Clotilda escaped with part of her attendants on horseback, and set fire to 
everything that belonged to her uncle or his subjects, on her way out of the 
kingdom. This furnished Clovis w^ith a pretext for a war, and though we 
have no account of the struggle, Gondebaud was finally forced to become tri- 
butary to Clovis. Clotilda was possessed of much influence over her warlike 
husband, and she strove hard to win him over to the Christian faith, in which 
she had been educated. Saint Remi aided by his eloquence the prayers of 
the queen, but Clovis thought it shame to allow himself to be moved in reli- 
gion by a woman or a monk, and he long resisted their efforts. Their labours 
were, however, not unrewarded. Clovis was conditionally converted on the 
field of battle, where an opportunity offered itself for a change of faith under 
more auspicious circumstances. 



CONVERSION OF CLOVIS. 43 

The Allemanni, having received no share when the empire was divided 
among the barbarians, fell upon the country of the Ripuarian Franks. The 
passage of the Rhine was bravely conteste;!, but the Allemanni would have 
been successful had not Clovis marched at the head of the Salians, to repel the 
assailants. They met in the plains of Tolbiac, four or five leagues west of the 
river (A. D. 496). The victory was fiercely contested ; Sigebert had been 
wounded in the knee and disabled from leading his troops, who were beginning to 
give way, when Clovis, addressing himself to Heaven in despair, vowed to be- 
come a Christian if victory were vouchsafed to him. According to the monkish 
writers, "his invocation was heard ;" the fortune of the day was changed by a 
mortal wound given to the King of the Allemanni, and his followers were 
totally routed. 

Saint Remi and the queen hastened to complete the work thus begun. 
A day was fixed for the baptism of the king, and the priests laboured zeal- 
ously among the Franks, who readily followed the example of the king. On 
the appointed day the king and three thousand of his followers were all 
brought into the church, which thus received the support of the greatest cham- 
pion of the age. Undoubtedly the conversion of Clovis was the effect of the 
ambitious policy of that king himself. He became a member of the orthodox 
faction, and was thus supplied with a pretext for interfering in the disputes of 
the other kings in Gaul, who were all fierce sectarians. All the petty kings 
of France were brought to the grave by the treacheries of Clovis. " Thy 
father grows old and halts on his bad foot ; were he to die, his kingdom and 
my friendship would be thine ;" was the significant message which he sent to 
the son of Sigebert the Lame, King of Cologne. The young prince had his 
father assassinated. A second embassy requested of the prince a sight of his 
treasures, and besought him to plunge his arm to the bottom of the chest to show 
them the amount it contained. He complied, and the ambassadors cleft his 
head with a battle-axe as he was stooping down. On receiving notice of the 
death of Sigebert and his successor, Clovis took possession of their territory 
under the pretence of protecting the people from ambitious princes. Chararic 
and his son were slain at his command, and their kingdom, treasures, and sub- 
jects became his own. Thus he steadily pursued a course of murder and ag- 
grandizement, until his kingdom extended from the Rhine to Switzerland. The 
Burgundians acknowledged his suzerainty, and he bent his eyes again towards 
the kingdom of the Visigoths, in the south of France. King Alaric endea- 
voured to avert the coming storm by forming an alliance with the Franks. He 
met Clovis on an island in the Loire near Amboise, where they ate and drank 
together, and pledged themselves to maintain amicable relations with each other. 
But Clovis continued to acquire an influence with the Visigoth Catholics ; and 
Alaric, by resorting to persecution, furthered instead of counteracting the in- 
trigues of the Frank king. The orthodox party sought protection and support 
from Clovis, against the king and his adherents, who resorted to banishment 



44 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 




INTERVIEW OF ALARIC AND CLOVIS. 




and confiscation to crush the opposition. In order to succour them, and secure 
the power and territory of their oppressor, Clovis forgot the inconvenient oath 
he had given to Alaric at their conference. " I am grieved," said the pious 
sovereign, " that these Arians have so long possessed a part of Gaul. Let us, 
with the aid of God, expel them, and reduce the country they possess to our 
allegiance. We shall do well, for it is good." His array was speedily on the 
march for Poitiers, where he contemplated joining battle with Alaric. He paid 
the greatest respect to the property of the church on the march, and affected 
a reverence for canonized personages, which won for him the attachment of 
the whole of the Cathohcs, and inspired his opponents with a favourable opinion 
of his piety. Miraculous circumstances foretold the success of the expedition ; 
though no small share of the honour derived from it is due to the sons of the 




■ i\: . N. \ • v-yA.^^-, w^^^>w^-^N^\_w\^^v-\-^N^v^>^v \ >,x j£af" 



KINGDOM OF I T A L Y . 47 

church, who lost no opportunity of showing their respect for a sovereign whose 
conduct evinced so great a regard for the interests of the orthodox church. 
There appeared no way of crossing the Vienne ; and the expedition seemed about 
to be compromised by delay, when a hart crossed the stream in sight of the 
whole army, and thus pointed out the ford. Clovis consulted the lots of St. 
Martin de Tours, which were favourable to him, and a pillar of fire appeared 
on the Cathedral of Poitiers for his guidance by night. In a plain near 
Vouille or Vironne, he encountered Alaric (A.D. 507). A great battle was 
fought, in which Alaric was transfixed by the spear of Clovis, who took pos- 
session of the chief cities of his country, and would probably have destroyed 
his whole kingdom, had not the great Theodoric interfered and driven him back 
with his irresistible might. 

Leaving Clovis for the present to content himself with the country between 
the Loire and the Garonne, we return to the kingdom of Italy, where impor- 
tant changes had taken place. The fellow-soldiers of Odoacer were barbarians 
of various nations, who had procured by their arms an independent and perpetual 
inheritance, in imitation of their brethren in Spain and Gaul. Though the sub- 
jection of Italy to an insolent soldiery, and the partition of the third of its 
territory among the brutal conquerors, seemed to plunge the degenerate Romans 
into the deepest abyss of misery and shame, we may trace from this epoch the 
slow revival of those energies which had long been extinguished in the Italians 
by the tyranny of the Caesars. The mixture of the barbarian soldiery of 
Odoacer with the slothful and voluptuous people whose possessions they had 
forcibly shared, infused the principles of life into a diseased and corrupted 
body. The settlement of the conquerors in the provinces of Italy must be re- 
garded only as the establishment, in a firmer posture, of the foreign mercenaries 
who had long formed the whole force of the state. Odoacer headed no new 
swarm of barbarians, and his prudence and humanity arrested the progress of 
desolation and wretchedness in a country which had groaned under every ex- 
tremity of war, pestilence, and famine. His reign was short ; but he fell to 
make way for other conquerors, and the native population was refreshed and 
invigorated by new accessions of foreign strength. At different intervals the 
Goths, the Lombards, and the Franks, successively acquired the dominion of 
Italy, and incorporated themselves with their subjects, until the Italian cha- 
racter, thus quickening with the spirit of personal independence, the glorious 
distinction of these northern people, rose from the depths of humiliation and 
cowardice to an elevation and dignity of soul which at once fitted it for the 
enjoyment and insured the possession of freedom.* 

In the year 489 A. D., fourteen years after Odoacer had assumed the 
sceptre, he was called to defend his dominions from the attacks of Theodoric, 
King of the Ostrogoths. When the kingdom of the Huns fell asunder after 

* Procter's Italy. Sismondi's Italian Republics of the Middle A^es. 



48 ESTABLISHMENT OP^ THE BARBARIANS. 

the death of the great Attila, that people became free and dwelt in Hungary 
and the neighbouring countries of the Danube. They had frequent disputes 
with the Emperors of the East, one of which was terminated by a peace pur- 
chased of the barbarians by the puerile Zeno. As a pledge of the alliance, 
Theodoric, or Dieterich, was sent to Constantinople, where he passed his youth 
in the acquisition of knowledge, the pleasures of warlike exercises, and the 
observance of the institutions of a great empire. By the death of his uncles 
and father he arrived at the sovereignty of his nation, and he brought to the 
throne all the heroic qualities of uncivilized life, with many of the milder vir- 
tues. He had proved to his subjects, by his exploits, that he had not de- 
generated from the valour of his ancestors ; and they all rallied round his banner, 
to be led from the unfruitful wastes of the Sau and the Danube, to a more 
desirable territory. Zeno seized the opportunity of ridding himself of a dan- 
gerous ally, by proposing to Theodoric that he might found the large and 
beautiful kingdom he desired in the fertile land of Italy. Since the fall of 
the western empire, Zeno had maintained a friendly correspondence with 
Odoacer, yet his fears led him to suffer Theodoric to lead his turbulent and 
restless followers into Italy as the faithful ally of the Emperor of the East. 

The march of Theodoric was the emigration of an entire people, the Goths 
having broken up their former seats and carried their families and most pre- 
cious effects with them. Theodoric encountered the army of Odoacer near 
Aquileia, and the King of Italy defended with unshaken courage the crown 
which his sword had won. His troops, however, were unable to resist the 
impetuous onset of the Goths, and the king was obliged to fly. Theodoric 
gained a second victory at Verona, from which he was styled in ballads and 
legendary songs, the great hero, Dieterich of Berne, which signifies Verona.* 
After suffering a third defeat near the Adda (A. D. 490), Odoacer found the 
gates of Rome closed against him. He retired to Ravenna, where he was 
besieged for three years. The contest was at length terminated by a treaty, 
which gave equal and undivided authority over Italy to the two leaders, and 
admitted Theodoric into Ravenna. During the rejoicings on the occasion, the 
unfortunate Odoacer was slain, either by the hand of Theodoric, or by his 
command (March 9, 493). 

His sokliers all shared the fate of their leader, and Theodoric reigned 
without opposition over all Italy. His long reign was an era of tranquil 
felicity for the inhabitants of that country ; he ruled with a kind and mild 
hand over both the Goths and the Romans, and introduced a happiness hito 
Italy to which it had long been a stranger. He renounced the prosecution 
of further conquests, to devote himself to the duties of civil government. 
The terror of his name was sufficient to preserve Italy, for forty years 
after his accession, from the horrors of invasion. Agriculture and trade 

* Kolilrauscli's Gcnuaiiy. 



REIGN OF THEODORIC. 49 

flourished to a great extent ; the ItaUans not only raising sufficient corn to 
need no importations from Sicily and Africa, but actually transporting it into 
Gaul. Theodoric also protected art and science, and many ancient cities rose 
from their ruins under his fostering hand. Elevated far above the other kings 
of his time by his wisdom and justice, he appeared among them as an institu- 
tor of peace, and the most distant tribes sought his advice and honoured him 
v^'ith presents. He represented to the other barbarian kings the advantages of 
peace,* and held out to them the picture of a great alliance founded upon jus- 
tice and wisdom, between all the Christian nations of German origin who had 
fixed their seat in Europe. But while he preached peace with earnestness and 
love, Clovis waged war with his sword, despised his doctrines, and sought 
only to bring. a multitude of tribes under his dominion.* When he finally 
interposed his strong arm to save the kingdom of the Visigoths from destruc- 
tion, the whole of that people recognised his suzerainty and consented to pay 
him tribute. Thus the control of the principal countries of the w^estern 
world was divided between Clovis and his antagonist, the King of the Ostro- 
goths. Theodoric comprehended within his realm, all the provinces lying 
along the European coast of the Mediterranean, Italy, Illyria, Portugal, Spain, 
and Septimania. The latter w'as the new title of the Visigothic kingdom, 
which comprised Provence, and the territory skirting the Alps, and lying along 
that coast of the Mediterranean. The Frank kingdom was much less exten- 
sive than that of the Ostrogoths. It comprised the western, northern, and 
part of the southern provinces of France ; Belgium, a territory of questionable 
extent east of the Rhine ; and pretensions to sovereignty over the Thuringians, 
and the German tribes between the Rhine and the shores of the Baltic. The 
Burgundians Kved in secure insignificance, apart from all other nations, and 
enjoying their own laws, customs, creed, and observances.! 

The chagrin with which Clovis beheld the gigantic power of Theodoric 
dash from him the undivided sovereignty of France, for w^hich he had laboured 
during the whole of his stormy life, must have been excessive, and was but 
ill concealed by his attempts to appear contented with the glory and gain he 
had secured. Had his ambitious designs remained imchecked, he would proba- 
bly have spurned as an indignity a circumstance which he now turned into a 
matter of triumph. Anastasius, the eastern emperor, having quarrelled with 
Theodoric, sent ambassadors to Clovis during his disputes with that monarch, 
to invest him with the robes and ensigns of patrician and consul. This as- 
sumption of absolute authority on the part of the emperor, though it added 
nothing to the power or the dignity of Clovis, was received by him with appa- 
rent pleasure. Supposing that the formality would operate favourably upon 
the Visigothic population, who had become to a great extent Romanized, he 
hastened to exhibit to his subjects the imperial ensigns. A pageant was pre- 

* Kohlrausch. — Procter. t Pictorial History of France. 

Vol. II. 7 



50 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS, 









CX.OVIS ENTERING TOUSS. 



pared at Tours, in which the monarch rode through the city dressed in the 
Roman costume, with eagles borne around him, and officers accompanying the 
procession scattering gold and silver among the gratified crowd. 

It is certain, from his conduct, that the king himself was but ill assured 
of the stability of the throne which he had founded. Unsuccessful in foreign 
ccnquest, he endeavoured to rid himself of all who were likely to interfere 
with his designs among his own people and family. The chiefs who had been 
of his council were sacrificed ; and he is said to have killed, with his own 
hand, two princes of his race. 

The remainder of the days of the first Christian King of the Franks is 
marked by murder, perfidy, and all the dark crimes of savage life ; his chief 
aim being to rid himself of all wdio were likely to interfere with his designs 
among his own people and family. The important part borne by the clergy 
in the civil administration of the realm, made it necessary to assemble a great 
council at Orleans for the regulation of church discipline throughout his do- 
minions, the decree for which was the last public act of his reign. He died 
Nov. 5th, 511, at Paris, in the thirtieth year of his reign, and the forty-fifth 
of his age.* 

The great Theodoric died in the year 526, a year which commenced the 
downfall of the monarchy he had founded. His son Athalaric, ten years of age, 



* Pictorial History of France. 



SUCCESSORS OF CLOVIS, 



51 




FRANK ■WARRIOR. 



succeeded to his throne ; but died soon after his father, 
the victim of his early vices. Before twenty-seven years 
had elapsed after the death of Theodosius, six princes 
had successively occupied his throne, five of whom were 
deposed or put to death by the turbulent and divided 
nobles. 

The Roman subjects, who were of the orthodox 
faction, hated their rulers, who, besides being of Gothic 
origin, professed the Arian heresy ; and many wished 
once again to be under the rule of the Greek emperors. 
The Emperor Justinian resolved to take advantage of this 
spirit, and thus was produced the conquest of Italy by 
Belisarius and Narses, an account of which will be found 
in the history of the reign of that emperor. Before pro- 
ceeding to recount its most remarkable incidents, it will 
perhaps be well to glance at the fate of the family of Clovis. On the death 
of that prince his four sons, each of whom headed one of the military en- 
campments, all became kings. They were, in general, worthy of their father. 
Thierry received Austrasia, or the eastern countries of France, comprehending 
Lorraine, Alsace, part of Champagne, Luxembourg, and the provinces of the 
Franks beyond the Rhine. Besides these, the districts which he himself had 
conquered from the Visigoths were assigned him by his father ; they were 
Rouergue, Auvergne, Quercy, Albigeois, and all the frontier of Provence and 
Septimania. 

The kingdom of Orleans, comprising Beauce, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and 
Berry, was bequeathed to Clodomir. The Isle of France, a moiety of Cham- 
pagne and of Normandy, with the rights which Clovis had possessed to 
Armorica, were received by Childebert, with the title of King of Paris. Artois, 
Flanders, and Picardy were erected into the kingdom of Soissons, which was 
given to Clotaire. The three princes last named were the sons of Clovis by 
Clotilda ; they were not yet old enough to undertake the government of their 
respective states. 

Thierry had been born while Clovis was yet a pagan. He had given 
promise of a warlike, active career during the lifetime of his father, and he com- 
menced fulfilling it by repelling with great skill and vigour, a piratical incursion 
of Danes, under their king Chlochilaic. They had advanced as far as the 
duchy of Gueldres, marking the way by pillage and destruction. But Chlochi- 
laic was defeated and slain in a battle in which Theodebert, son of Thierry, 
greatly distinguished himself; the greater number of the invaders became 
prisoners, and the booty they had taken w^as all recovered. The throne of 
Thuringia was shared between the two brothers Hermanfroy and Balderic. 
The former, by the aid of Thierry, drove the latter from his throne. Thierry 
then claimed the reward for his services, and received only mockery from 



52 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

Hermanfroy, who had taken refuge under the protection of Theodoric of 
Italy. 

Meanwhile, Gondebaud of Burgundy had died, leaving the throne to his 
son Sigismond. The sons of Clotilda who had attained manhood, were en- 
treated by that queen to avenge the wrongs she had suffered, by pouring out 
the blood of the son of her enemy, who could not have been involved in the 
crimes which stained his father's memory. Clodomir, King of Orleans, took 
the matter into his own charge, made war upon Sigismond, defeated him in 
battle, ravaged his territories, and compelled his subjects to deliver into his 
hands their king, with his wife and two sons. These were all murdered by 
command of Clodomir, and thrown into a well, which is still exhibited near 
Orleans. The unfortunate king was regarded as a martyr, both by the Franks 
and his own subjects, and the waters of the well into which his body w^as 
thrown, were long believed to possess miraculous powers — especially in the 
cure of fever. A second son of Gondebaud succeeded to the throne, and Clo- 
domir commenced a second campaign against Hungary, which would have 
resulted in the overthrow of that kingdom, had not the savage eagerness of 
Clodomir lost for him the fruits of a brilliant victory. Pursuing the flying 
Hungarians, he suffered himself to outstrip most of his followers, and found 
himself suddenly surrounded by the enemy, who recognised him by his long 
hair and his resemblance to his father. They made him a prisoner, cut off his 
head, and elevated it on a pike as a standard, around which their countrymen 
rallied and renewed the fight. But the Franks became furious at the death 
of their king, and fircely avenged him. The Burgundians were totally routed, 
and none who fell into the hands of the victors received quarter. Burgundy 
was reduced to a wilderness, but the fate of Sigismond had so excited the 
sympathy of the Burgundians, that they resolutely protected his brother Gon- 
domar in all vicissitudes. On the withdrawal of the Franks, he reascended his 
throne, and swayed the sceptre as an independent sovereign. 

The death of Theodoric removed the obstacle which had hitherto pre- 
vented the Frankish warriors from prosecuting the career of conquest which 
they had begun. Thuringia and Burgundy first felt the loss they had sustained. 
Thierry w^-is well prepared to seize the opportunity which he had long desired, 
of crushing the power of the deceitful Hermanfroy. He invited Clotaire to 
assist him, and the united forces of the two kings inflicted upon the Thurin- 
gians a defeat of the most sanguinary description. The deep and dangerous 
ford of the Onstrud was filled with the bodies of the slain, so that victors and 
vanquished passed over as on a bridge. The people submitted, in order to avoid 
the total desolation which seemed to hang over their country, and Hermanfroy 
himself came to Thierry and threw himself upon his mercy. He w^as kindly re- 
ceived and even loaded with presents ; but, a few days afterwards, an unknown 
hand pushed him into the fosse, as he was walking upon the ramparts of the 
town in which the Franks were quartered. The infamy of having executed or 



TREACHERY OF THIERRY. 



53 




■LOT AIRE DISCOVERING THK ASSASSINS. 



devised this scheme, was generally fastened upon him to whom it had been most 
useful, the King of Austrasia, and an anecdote related of him while he was yet 
in Thuringia, by a histoiian before quoted, clearly shows him to have been 
perfectly well fitted for the undertaking. Thierry sent for his brother Clotaire 
as though he wished to see him upon some important business. When the 
King of Soissons arrived, Thierry led him to a hall across which some tapestry 
had been hung, for the purpose of screening a party of armed men, who 
waited there for a signal for the execution of their murderous design. But 
the tapestry proved too scanty for its purpose ; Clotaire saw the feet of the 
assassins peering from beneath, and instinctively clapped his hand upon his 
sword. Thierry saw that his design was discovered, and affected to treat the 
matter as a jest, arranged to frighten Clotaire. In order to convince him that 
fratricide had not been intended, he made him a present of a large silver bowl, 
with many protestations of affectionate solicitude and esteem.* 

In the same year, Childebert, King of Paris, made war upon Amalaric 
of Septimania, who had married his sister Clotilda, and shamefully treated her 



* Gregfory of Tours. 



54 R S T A B I, I S II M E N T OF T TI R BARBARIANS. 

on account of her adherence to tin- orlhodnx faith. He heat her one day so 
cruelly that she sent to her brotlier a handkerchief stained with her blood. 
A victory gained at Narhonne opened the gates of that city to Childebert, 
and Amalaric was slain at the foot of an Arian altar, to which he had fled 
for refuge. Childebert then set out for Paris, carrying with him his sister 
Clotilda; but the unhappy princess died upon the way from the injuries she 
had received from her husband and his subjects. Septimania remained inde- 
pendent under the rule of Theudis. 

Thierry now wished to carry the war into Burgundy, without giving his 
brothers a share in the expedition ; but his followers refused to accede to this 
scheme, which they deemed antinational. The spirit of discontent thus raised, 
was fast verging to revolt, and some plan must be devised to prevent them 
from renouncing their allegiance. Thierry cast his eyes on Auvergne, which 
had revolted while Childebert was warring against Septimania. The hope of 
plundering their fellow-subjects in the south, secured the wavering faith of the 
northern soldiers. The fertile plains bordering Provence were speedily over- 
run, and everything valuable was taken from the cities, the towns, and even 
the monasteries and churches. This expedition, undertaken at first only for 
the purpose of gratifying his followers with plunder, soon assumed the aspect 
of a serious war. Roused against oppressors who were determined to strip 
them of all they held dear in life, the Auvergnats proved dangerous foes. 
Thierry was compelled to retire from a conflict with the defenders of the 
castle of Outre, now Volore, though he afterwards rained possession of the 
place by treachery. But the fate of their countrymen of Outre, failed to dis- 
hearten the garrison of Meroliac, who defended that fortress to the last extremity, 
notwithstanding the conduct of Thierry, who led fifty of their number, pre- 
viously captured, to the foot of the walls, and threatened to decapitate them if 
the citadel were not surrendered. When all opposition seemed to be crushed, 
the war was suddenly revived by Munderic, one of the wealthiest and most 
powerful chiefs in the country, who claimed affinity with Clovis. He caused 
himself to be proclaimed king, and though beaten in the open field, he threw 
himself into the town of Vitoriacum, (Vitry in Champagne,) w^hence he de- 
fied the power of the Austrasians. Thierry enticed him to a conference without 
the walls, and there murdered him; but his followers, animated by despair, 
continued the war, till after the decease of Thierry. Feeling the approach of 
death, that king resigned the command to his brave son Theodebert, and re- 
tired to Metz, where he died (A. D. 534). Theodebert terminated the con- 
fhct by totally destroying his opponents. 

Meanwhile important transactions had occurred in Burgundy. When 
Thierry marched to Auvergne, his brothers Clotaire and Childebert, with his 
son Theodebert, invaded Burgundy, captured Autun and Vienna, and defeated 
Gondomar in a general engagement. They then retired to their homes, and 
deferred the fate of Burgundy until a second invasion. This took place in 



MURDER OF CLODOMIR'S CHILDREN. 



55 




IIURDSR OF CLODOMIR'S CHILDaSSI. 



532, when Gondomar was defeated and taken prisoner, and his dominions 
divided among the conquerors. 

Between the first and the second invasions of Burgundy, Childebert conceived 
the design of annexing to his dominions half of those which had belonged to 
his brother Clodomir. At the death of that king, his children were quite young ; 
and they had been carefully educated by Queen Clotilda, with a view to their 
inheriting their father's kingdom. She took them one day to Paris, where 
Childebert then held his court, and he wrote to his brother Clotaire to con- 



56 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

suit him on the propriety of taking from them the investiture of Orleans. 
Clotaire hastened from Soissons, and readily agreed to the diabolical conspiracy. 
They demanded the princes from Clotilda on the pretence that they ought to 
be presented to the people as their kings, and the queen joyfully resigned her 
guardianship. When the infants were in their power, the royal assassins 
despatched Arcadius to Clotilda with a sword and a pair of scissors, desiring 
her to choose the fate of her grandsons. Distracted by the cruelty of her 
inhuman sons, the queen hesitated not to sacrifice their lives rather than see 
them live dishonoured. She well knew that if deprived of their locks they 
would live as objects of scorn and contempt to the Franks. She therefore 
cried, " If they are not to reign like their father, I had rather see them dead 
than shorn." Their doom was sealed. Brought to their uncles, Clotaire 
seized the eldest, threw him on the floor and gave him a mortal wound in 
the armpit with his dagger. His brother threw himself at the feet of Childe- 
bert, who was moved to compassion by his cries, and joined with him in en- 
deavouring to persuade Clotaire to spare his life. But pity and remorse never 
found a place in the heart of the savage Clotaire, who reproached his brother 
with having instigated him to the deed, and ordered him to cast off the prince 
or be slain himself. Then plunging his dagger in his side, he slew the child 
as he had slain his brother. The attendants of the princes, who had been 
confined in another part of the palace, shared the same fate. Clotaire then 
mounted his horse and rode off to his capital, while Childebert, whose heart 
was less callous, withdrew into the suburbs of Paris ; and his mother placed 
the bodies of her grandsons in one coffin, and buried them in the tomb of 
their grandfather Clovis. 

Justinian had become sole Emperor of the East on the death of his uncle 
Justin (A. D. 527). Theodora, his empress, was a woman of infamous char- 
acter, whose vices exceeded all that were before known in the licentious city 
of Constantinople. A great part of that city was ruined by firebrands in the 
hands of the emperor's soldiers, when they were engaged in quelling a tumult. 
The disturbance originated in the circus, where two rival factions distinguished 
themselves by the colours worn by the charioteers, who competed for the prize 
of swiftness. The rioters overcame the troops, and held possession of the 
city for some days ; but the Blues finally declared for the emperor, and 
against the Greens ; a strong body of veterans was marched to the Hippo- 
drome, or race-course, and peace was restored by the massacre of thirty 
thousand of the insurgents. 

By accepting the submission of the Lazi, a tributary people of Persia, 
Justin provoked a rupture, the consequences of which were reaped by his 
nephew. Cabades commenced the war by attacking the Roman workmen 
employed in constructing a fortress beyond Dara. Belisarius, who was Prefect 
of the East, hastened to succour the place, and commenced his glorious career 
by a victory over the enemy. Armenia was next attacked by the Persians, 



TRIUMPH OF BEL ISA RIUS. 57 

and Syria would have fallen into their hands, had not Belisarius saved it by 
marching towards Antioch. As it was, he lost one battle. BeUsarius was 
superseded by Sittas, who could not force the enemy to abandon the siege of 
Martyropohs ; the unexpected death of Cabades, however, gave a different di- 
rection to the court of Ctesiphon. Chosroes, menaced on the throne by a 
disinherited brother, acceded to proposals of peace ; but the treaty of perpetual 
friendship, which the two sovereigns concluded, merely suspended the war for 
a time. 

One of the chief projects of the reign of Justinian was the extension of 
the imperial power over all the Roman provinces that had fallen into the hands 
of the barbarians. He first turned his attention towards Africa, and availed him- 
self, as a pretext, of the usurpation of Gelimer, who had at that time dethroned 
Hilderic. The once ferocious Vandals, then in possession of Africa, enervated by 
luxury and by the climate, promised an easy victory. Belisarius was appointed 
the commander of the imperial forces, and a large fleet was assembled in the 
harbour of Constantinople for the transportation of the army. Belisarius landed 
without opposition on the coast of Africa, advanced toward Carthage, defeated its 
defenders in a pitched battle, and captured the city itself. Gelimer made 
another effort to save his kingdom ; but was defeated at Tricameron, and be- 
sieged in the castle into which he had fled for safety. The want of provisions 
compelled him to surrender unconditionally. But Belisarius experienced the 
usual fate of victorious generals. The voice of envy asserted that he intended 
to appropriate to himself the throne of the Vandals. Justinian meanly gave 
his ear to the aspersion, and submitted to his able general the alternative of 
remaining in the province or returnmg to the capital, a favour which Belisa- 
rius well understood. He resolved to confound his enemies by his presence and 
submission ; his treasures, guards, and captives were instantly embarked, and his 
arrival at Constantinople gave to the emperor the first information of his leav- 
ing Carthage. Justinian's apprehensions were removed by the loyalty of his 
able general ; the gratitude and admiration of the public silenced the voice 
of envy ; and the honours of a triumph, a spectacle never before seen in Con- 
stantinople, were awarded to this third Africanus. The procession was con- 
ducted from the palace of Belisarius, through the principal streets, to the Hip- 
podrome ; the wealth of nations was displayed; the trophies of martial or 
effeminate luxury, rich armour, golden thrones, and the carriages of state, that 
had been used by the Vandal queen, royal furniture, precious stones, statues, 
vases, bullion, and coined gold, and the holy vessels of the Jewish temple, 
which were now deposited in the Christian church at Jerusalem. The great 
conqueror displayed his modesty and avoided the jealousy of his master by 
walking on foot at the head of his brave companions ; a long train of the 
noblest Vandals exposed their handsome countenances and lofty stature, while a 
dress of purple and a majestic air pointed out the captive king Gelimer. He 
bore his reverses without sorrow, consoling himself by repeating the reflection of 
Vol. it. 8 



^3 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

Solomon, " Vanity ! vanit) ! all is vanity I" The procession entered the gate of 
the Hippodrome, was saluted by the acclamations of the senate and people, and 
halted before the throne where the emperor was seated to receive the homage 
of the captive and the conqueror. They both performed the customary adora- 
tion, and falling prostrate on the ground, respectfully' touched the footstool of 
the prince. Some gentle violence was used to bend the stubborn spirit of the 
grandson of Genseric ; and, however trained to servitude, the genius of Beli- 
sarius must have seci-etly rebelled. He was immediately declared consul for 
the ensuing year, and the day of his inauguration resembled the pomp of a 
second triumph. His curule chair was borne aloft on the shoulders of caj)tive 
Vandals, and the spoils of war, gold cups and rich girdles, were profusely 
scattered among the populace.* 

The death of Athalaric, the young King of Italy, having deprived his 
mother Amalasontha of the power she had wielded during his lifetime, she 
procured the election of her cousin Theodatus, on his promise to divide with 
her the sovereign authority. Disappointed in her expectations, she was about 
to quit Italy, when she was arrested, thrown into prison, and put to death, 
by order of her ungrateful cousin. Justinian eagerly seized the opportunity of 
interfering in the affairs of the Goths, and the great Belisarius was selected as 
the instrument for driving them altogether from Italy. He first, however, en- 
tered into negotiation with the Franks, with a view of securing their assis- 
tance. Theodebert and the two sons of Clovis listened to his overtures, pro- 
mised their aid, and distributed his bribes among their troops. Theodatus had 
already been succeeded by Vitiges, who also sought assistance from the Franks. 
He offered them, in return, the sovereignty of Provence and an extension of 
their southern frontier. The wily Franks accepted his bribes also, and pro- 
mised their aid; but they finally resolved to remain neutral during the struggle, 
convinced that whoever might be successful, it would result in their gain. 
Theodebert was enriched beyond expectation, by the mere negotiations. Be- 
sides one-third of Provence, the country now inhabited by the Grisons was 
subjected to his dominion, and he was adopted by Justinian as his son. This 
substantial favour was very properly appreciated by Theodebert, who showed 
his gratitude for the kindness in a letter to the emperor, in which Justinian 
was styled " Father." 

Meanwhile, Belisarius had commenced the war. While he made himself 
master of Naples and of Rome, his lieutenant, Mundilas, captured Milan. Vitiges 
now came again to Theodebert, and by liberal concessions secured his aid. 
The Austrasian king, notwithstanding his promise to his " father," the empe- 
ror, sent ten thousand Burgundians (not Franks) over the Alps, into Italy. 
He caused these auxiliaries to march in detached bands, without chiefs, not 
as disciplined troops, but as raw volunteers. In Italy they reunited under 

'*" Gibbuii. 



THEODKBERT. 59 

their leaders, and assisted Vitiges to retake Milan. A most fearful vengeance 
was inflicted on its garrison and inhabitants ; more than 300,000 males are 
said to have been massacred in the sack of the city ; the Burgundians re- 
ceiving for their share of the s})oiLs all the women and girls, who were 
sold into slavery. But the rapacity of these mercenary allies gave such 
trouble to Vitiges that he became tired of their aid, and solicited Theodebert 
to recall them, and aid him henceforth by his neutrality. The Austrasian, 
however, intended to secure for himself the kingdom of Theodoric ; and he 
therefore construed this demand as a subject of offence, and announced his 
determination to proceed to Italy in person, to end the war which consumed it. 
Both of the combatants heard, without alarm, of his advance to the Po at 
the head of a hundred thousand men, for he had led each to expect in him 
an ally. They were encamped near each other, between Pavia and Tortona, 
the Ostrogoths being nearest to the Franks. When Theodebert came up with 
them, the soldiers of Vitiges opened their ranks to receive him, and were 
thrown into irretrievable confusion by the attack made upon them by ^heir 
supposed friends. They were driven into the very midst of the imperial troops ; 
who, not doubting that the presents of Justinian had won the Franks over to 
his cause, joined with the victors in the pursuit. Vitiges escaped with his life, 
and threw himself into the fortress of Ravenna. Theodebert, by turning on 
the Romans, showed them that he had undertaken the expedition on his own 
account. Most of the imperialists threw down their arms, and dispersed for 
refuge in the towns and cities of Tuscany. The provinces of Liguria and 
^Emilia were overrun and plundered by the victors. Genoa, with other cities, 
was captured and ruined. Want of provisions, however, induced them to re- 
turn to Austrasia, heavily laden with the rich spoils of both Goths antl Romans. 
Justinian pretended that his arms had forced them to retire, and assumed the 
title of Conqueror of the Franks. Theodebert w^as so much offended at his 
arrogance that he proposed to unite with the Goths, and wiih five hundred 
thousand men to march to the very gates of Constantinople. But the King 
of the Goths was obliged to remain cooped up in Ravenna, until by poisoning 
the water and firing the granaries of the towm, Belisarius induced him to sur- 
render, on condition that Italy should remain an independent kingdom, under 
the sceptre of the Roman general.* 

Meanwhile, Theodebert had become engaged in a w^ar between his uncles, 
Clotaire and Childebert. He succeeded in suddenly surrounding the army of 
Clotaire, who had invaded the territories of Childebert, and compelling him to 
seek safety in the forest of Arelaunium. While there, he totally escaped a terrific 
storm, which carried destruction and death into the camp of his brother. Fear- 
ing that they had all incurred the Divine wrath, the belligerents made peace, 
much to the joy of the aged queen Clotilda, who had prayed unceasingly for 

* Pictorial History of France. 



60 



KSTABTJSIIMENT OF THE B A R B A R I A N S. 




SIEGE OF ZARAGOSSA. 



the establishment of amicable relations. In 54)1, the restless Clotaire joined 
his brother in a war against the Visigoths in Spain. It commenced under 
the most favourable auspices. Pampeluna surrendered; and Biscay, Navarre, 
and Catalonia were overrun and ravaged. Zaragossa was besieg;ed, but escaped 
plunder in a marvellous manner. Being unable, from the want of provisions, 
to maintain the defence, the inhabitants, clothed in sackcloth, made a solemn 
procession round the Avails of their city, singing psalms and hymns, and in- 
voking the protection of their patron, Saint Vincent. They cairied at their 



DEATH OF Til RODE BERT. <>l 

head, and elevated as a standard, the tunic of the siiiiit. The Franks per- 
ceived this procession from their encampment ; and the somhre dresses of the 
actors, and the groups of women, with dishevelled hair and plaintive cries, who 
closed it, caused them to suppose that it was some incantation of Arian witch- 
craft. But when they learned the truth from a peasant, whom they took as 
he was attempting to quit the town, they respected the piety of the people, 
and the memory of the saint, and consented to raise the siege. In return for 
his forbearance, Childebert solicited and obtained the consecrated tunic, which 
he took with him on his return to Paris, where he founded for its preserva- 
tion the celebrated abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres.* 

In the following year, 544, the Franks destroyed the army of the Sep- 
timanian Goths ; but the war appears to have been undertaken only for pillage 
and the indulgence of a passion for military exercise. The independence of 
Septimania was still maintained, and the Franks and Visigoths preserved their 
former boundaries. In Italy, meanwhile, hostilities were continued between the 
Ostrogoths and the imperialists. Vitiges had been led a prisoner to Con- 
stantinople, and Eelisarius was sent to conduct the Persian war. After ex- 
periencing a variety of fortune, according as his own bravery, the misconduct 
of his infamous wife, or the jealousy of Justinian, gained the ascendency, he 
was sent back to Italy to recover the territory lost by his unskilful suc- 
sessors. In eight months, two new sovereigns had been seated on the 
Gothic throne, both of whom were assassinated. A soldier of considerable skill 
having been elevated by his countrymen to the rank of king, was making 
rapid progress towards the re-establishment of the power of Theodoric. He 
defeated an imperial army numbering nearly four times his force, reduced the 
greater part of Lower Italy to subjection, captured and pillaged Rome, and 
then abandoned it. Belisarius re-entered it, planted the Roman eagle on its 
walls, and prepared for a decisive struggle. 

Both parties sought the aid of Theodebert, but he had determined to adopt 
the same policy which he had formerly pursued with so much success. He 
sent his general, Bucelin, with a strong army nito Italy, with orders to treat 
both Ostrogoths and imperialists as enemies. He was joined by seventy-five 
thousand Allemanni, and the amount of booty which his soldiers sent home to 
France and Germany was immense. The Frank monarch, encouraged by his 
success, threatened to punish the emperor for his arrogance in assuming the 
title of Conqueror of the Franks, by investing his capital city, Constantinople. 
But his death (A. D. 547) prevented the execution of this design. In the 
same year, Clotilda, the widow of Clovis, died, and was buried at Paris, in 
the same tomb with her husband, her daughter, and her murdered grandsons. 
The imbecile Theodebald succeeded his fiither ; his accession was marked by the 
destruction of his forces in Italy. The Allemanni had marched to deposite their 

* Pictorial Ilibturv of Frunce. 



62 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 



booty in Northern Italy; but a plague broke out among them on the banks 
of Lake Benacus, and swept away the greater i)art of his army. Bucelin had, 
therefore, to contend alone f'oi- the mastery over Italy ; but he was defeated and 
slain in an engagement with the eunuch Narses, who had succeeded Belisarius 
in the command of the imperial forces. Before defeating the Franks, Narses 
had fought a battle with Totila, in which the vaHant Goth was defeated and 
slain. His successor, Teias, made a fruitless attempt to renew the war; 
he was slain in a battle which lasted two whole days, and which totally 
ruined the power of the Ostrogoths. The Franks having now lost all their 
conquests in Italy, the country was again annexed to the dominions of the 
Emperor of the Romans. (A. D. 5o3.) 







n E A. T Jd OP C 1 1 B A M W E . 



Theodebald died in the same year, and Clotaire seized the greatest part 
of his possessions. Childebert revenged himself by inciting Chramrae, Clotaire's 
eldest son, to rebel against his father, and claim Austrasia for himself. Chram- 
me was a debauched and profligate young man, in comparison with whose 
other vices, rebellion was a crime of little magnitude. A Saxon war, of which 
little is known, engaged Clotaire on the banks of the Rhine, and Chramme 
took advantage of this circumstance to unite with Childebert. But the death 
of that king (A. D. 5o8) put an end to his hopes of effectual resistance, and he 
sought and obtained forgiveness from his father. Two years afterwards, however, 
he fled from the court of his father, and found refuge with his wife and two 
infiint daughters, at the court of Canao, King of Brittany. This was a new 



THE AVARS AND TURKS. 63 

monarchy which had sprung into existence since the death of Clovis ; it consisted 
of the remnant of the old Armorican confederation, and numbers of British re- 
fugees from the Saxon invaders. Clotaire marched against Canao, who made 
an attack upon his army, but was defeated, Chramme being forced to seek 
safety in flight. He reached the seashore, where he had engaged a vessel to 
carry him to another land; but he awaited the arrival of his wife and children, 
a delay which proved fatal to him. They had fallen into the hands of a band 
of Franks, who subsequently made him a prisoner. The w^hole family was 
enclosed in a small hut, bound to the timbers to prevent their escape, and 
burned to death with the building. (A. D. 560.) 

Two years after the death of Chramme, Clotaire himself died, leaving his 
kingdom to be divided between his four sons, Caribert, Gontran, Chilperic, and 
Sigebert. The division of their inheritance caused a civil war between the 
brothers. Chilperic commenced hostilities as soon as his father's corpse was 
buried. Hastening from the funeral ceremonies at Soissons to Braine, where 
Clotaire had had his favourite residence, he seized the royal treasures, had them 
brought from the subterranean chambers in which they had been kept, and 
induced the Franks of the neighbourhood to proclaim him sole king, by freely 
distributing the w-ealth of his father. But his brothers united against him, and 
compelled him, after a short struggle, to be content with a proper share of 
the realm. 

While the conquests of Belisarius were restoring to Justinian the western 
provinces of the Roman empire, the north-eastern frontiers were ravaged almost 
with impunity. Fearing to meet the hordes of the Gepidee in the field, the 
emperor gave to the Longobardi, or Lombards, a settlement in Pannonia ; and 
the empire was protected from the invasions of both hordes by a war wdiich 
raged between them for forty years. But the Sclavonians and Bulgarians 
annually purchased a passage through the territories of the Gepidffi, and made 
inroads into Southern Greece ; and the new" and formidable barbarian races 
of the Avars and the Turks, began to make themselves known to the people 
of the Eastern Empire. 

The Avars, from an unknow^n age, possessed the mountains and deseits 
in North-eastern Asia, bordering on Lake Baikal. Under a monarch named Tulun, 
they advanced southward, extending their empire to the sea which separates 
Corea from Japan. This monarch took the name Chakan, or Chagan, still 
used on the coins of the Turkish sultans. But civil wars broke out among the 
Avars; rival tribes from the north assailed them, and a new" horde over- 
threw their empire and totally destroyed their power. This was the nation 
of the Turks, called by the Chinese, Thi'.kpiii. They had been originally 
the slaves of the Avars; they inhabited the great Altaian mountains, and 
were engaged in fabricating armour and weapons, in working the mines and 
attending the forges. With Tiiumen for their leader, they asserted their inde- 
pendence, antl made slaves of their former masters. During the reigns of 



64 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 13 A R 13 A R I A N S. 




C HIT P F H 1 r DIViniN lllS t \ l L h B b I'iaASDRi'S 



Thumen and his successor Dizabul, the Turkish dominions were extended from 
the Volga to the Sea of Japan. They were thus brought into possession of 
the countries through which the silk trade was carried, and commei-cial rehi- 
tions began to subsist between the Turks, • the Persians, and the Byzantines. 
In their career of conquest, the Turks overthrew the nation of the Ogors, or 
Varchonites, w^ho then migrated toward Europe, by the route of the Volga. 
They called themselves Avars, because that name was still so formidable as to 
awaken terror in their opponents.* 



*Tavlor. 



LEGISLATION OF JUSTINIAN. 65 

. Chosroes, the Persian monarch, was the great rival of Justinian. He 
would most probably have again extended the power of Persia over the whole 
country ruled by Cyrus, had not the Eastern Emperor brought Belisarius into 
the field against him. When the jealousy of the emperor removed that general 
from the command, Chosroes urged forward his conquests with alarming ra- 
pidity ; Belisarius was reinstated, and the Persian was forced to retire. 

While Narses was reducing Italy, Belisarius had been restored to his proper 
rank, and sent to defend the empire from an invasion of the Bulgarians. He 
gained a decisive victory ; but the intrigues of the courtiers prevented him from 
following up his advantages. By the payment of a large ransom for their 
captives, the Bulgarians were induced to retire over the Danube, and Justinian 
claimed the gratitude of his subjects for their deliverance. Belisarius, the prop 
of the emperor's power, was soon after disgraced and imprisoned on a false 
charge of treason. His innocence was subsequently proved, and he was re- 
stored to freedom ; but grief and resentment hurried him to the grave, anrl the 
rapacious emperor took possession of his treasures. Eight months afterward 
Justinian toUowed him, scarcely regretted by his subjects. 

Under the reign of Justinian and by his direction, all the imperial laws that 
had been enacted since the accession of Adrian, were collected into a single vol- 
ume, the Code. The enormous chaos of ancient decisions was also reduced to 
order, in a work called the Pandects, arranged in fifty books, and containing all 
that was useful in ancient jurisprudence. Besides these, an elementary work on 
jurisprudence was prepared, as an introduction to the study of the law. This, 
which is the most valuable of all the works of Justinian, was named the Institulea. 
The Institutes, the Pandects, and the Code thus comprised the whole system 
of ancient Roman jurisprudence; and formed, according to the statement of the 
emperor, a holy and august temple, in which justice should pronounce her 
oracles. Justinian reserved to himself, in express terms, the right of adding 
subsequently and separately, such constitutions as he should judge necessary. 
These were called JVovels : they limit, extend, and in some instances repeal 
the Code ; in the last year of the emperor's reign they were collected into a 
volume. The principal agent in the preparation of these works was Tribonian, 
a very eminent lawyer, and a corrupt judge. Being accustomed to sell jus- 
tice, he found no difficulty in altering, suppressing, or perverting many excel- 
lent laws. The inconsistency of many of the emperor's Novels with the laws 
of the Code, lead to the suspicion that the emperor and his legal adviser were 
guided by interest and favour rather than by reason and equity. 

The Basilica, or Greek constitutions of later emperors, supplanted Justi- 
nian's Code in the East, and Illyria was the only province in the West that re- 
ceived it, until the overthrow of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy. There it was 
soon superseded by the laws of the Lombards. When Charlemagne had over- 
thrown the Lombard monarchy, he searched Italy in vain for a copy of the legis- 
lation of Justinian. In the twelfth century, the troops of the emperor Lothaire II. 
Vol. II. 9 



66 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 



found a copy of the Digest in the city of Amalfi, which was presented as a 
reward for services to the citizens of Pisa. At a later period, a copy of the 
Code was found in Ravenna ; and the Novels, which were dispersed through- 
out Italy, were gathered into a collection. " Such were the origin and revo- 
lutions of this celebrated body of legislation, the source of the civil laws 
throughout Europe, and the great guide to the most civilized nations, in sup- 
plying the defects of their several legal systems."* 

Justinian, anxious to obtain for his subjects a certain supply of silk with- 
out subjecting the commerce of the Byzantines to the exactions of his enemies, 
endeavoured to wrest from the Persians some portion of their trade. In this 




JDS'J'IN1A.N AND IHE MONES. 



attempt he foiled ; but about the middle of the sixth century, when least expected, 
the object of his hopes was placed wnthin his reach. The labours of the silk- 
worms, and the method of rearing them, had been accurately observed by two Per- 
sian monks, while performing their duties as Christian missionaries, under the di- 
rection of some of the churches established in India. They communicated their 
information to Justinian, who, by liberal promises, induced them to undertake 
the task of introducing the cultivation of silk into his capital. They proceeded 
to China and returned with a competent supply of the eggs of the silk-worm, 
concealed in a hollow cane. The eggs were hatched, and the insects fed upon 



Taylor. 



THE SILK MANUFACTURE. 67 

the leaves of the wild mulberry-tree. Success attended the labours of Jus- 
tinian and his pious assistants, and the worms increased so rapidly that the 
emperor opened the trade. In 571, scarcely twenty years after the discovery 
of the monks, the Turks, having learned from their tributaries, the Sogdians, 
that the carrying-trade had greatly fallen off, sent a commission to Constanti- 
nople to form a commercial treaty with the Byzantines. The astonishment of 
the ambassadors can scarcely be conceived when they found the people of 
Constantinople well supplied with silk of their own growth, and already rival- 
ling the manufactures of China. 

Sigebert, King of Austrasia, had scarcely received the homage of his new 
subjects before his presence was required beyond the Rhine, to repel an inva- 
sion of Thuringia by the Avars. They had left their homes in McBsia, in the 
hope of acquiring rich booty, by plundering the territory of the Franks. But 
their wild and formidable looks, which had awed the effeminate soldiers of 
Justinian, produced no effect on the stout-hearted Austrasians, who offered 
battle as soon as they met. Sigebert fought on foot at the head of his army, 
and succeeded in driving the invaders back. Four years afterwards, however, 
they returned to the attack, and achieved a complete victory. But they failed to 
make a conquest or settlement, and the battle would seem to have led to a 
friendly intercourse between the two armies. Sigebert having fallen into 
their hands a prisoner, they were struck with his manly beauty, and gave him 
his freedom and many presents. In return, Sigebert provided them with the 
means of subsistence during their return to their own country. 

The desire of protecting the frontiers of the empire from the Gepidse, had 
induced the emperor to allow the Lombards to settle on them. Thrace en- 
joyed comparative tranquillity while they warred with each other ; but when 
Alboin came to the Lombard throne, he united with the Avars, for the pur- 
pose of crushing the enemies of his nation. The emperor, Justin II., unwisely 
abandoned the Gepidse to their fate. Their king, Cunimund, was defeated and 
slain, and his skull was formed into a drinking-cup by his barbarous enemy. 
Rosamond, the daughter of the slaughtered king, was forced to become the 
spouse of the victor, and the bravest of the surviving Gepidse were incorpo- 
rated with the Lombard troops. The Avars received the territory of Dacia, 
with a large share of the spoils, for their assistance during the war. Alboin 
fixed his ambition on a higher object. The wealth and fertility of Italy had 
attracted the attention of a body of the Lombards, who had served under 
Narses m that country, and Alboin induced them to hope that this fair land 
might be their own. He recalled its advantages to their minds by producing 
some of its finest fruits at a feast. His designs were approved by his subjects, 
and the neighbouring German and Slavonic tribes sent many adventurers to 
join his standard. When ready to set out, the Lombards resigned their lands 
to the Avars, who promised to return them if their friends should fail in the 
conquest of Italy. As if to insure success to Alboin, the Empress Sophia 



68 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 



removed the skilful Narses from his office of exarch, and appointed Longinus 
in his stead. 

The Lombards found no army to oppose them in the field, and few even 
of the cities resisted Alboin's progress. Pavia closed her gates against him, and 
detained him three years before its walls. Famine at length forced it to sur- 
render ; and its inhabitants would have been put to a general massacre, had 
not the horse of Alboin stumbled as he was entering the gates. He believed that 
Heaven had sent him an omen to warn him against cruelty, and he granted 
pardon and safety to the vanquished. He died, however, before he could 
regulate the affairs of his new kingdom. One evening, maddened with wine, 
he sent to his wife Rosamond the tlrinking-cup which had been made of the 
skull of her father, filled to the brim, and commanded her to rejoice with her sire. 
She was obliged to obey ; but she vowed to wipe out the insult in the blood 
of its author. The indulgence of an adulterous passion was added to the desire 
of vengeance, and Alboin was murdered (A. D. 573). 

Clepho was chosen to succeed him ; but he was stabbed by a domestic 
at the end of eighteen months. His cruelty had given to his subjects a dis- 
like to royalty, and they changed the government to a federative form. This 
lasted for ten years, during which the Lombards were generally successful in 
Italy, but failed in all their attempts upon the Franks. Their first expedition 
of this kind was undertaken in 570. The army sent against them by Gontran 
was defeated ; and they proceeded through the country until the accumulation of 

their spoil made it necessary for them to re- 
turn. They soon undertook a second expedi- 
tion. Gontran sent against them Ennius, sur- 
named Mummol, an able general. He de- 
feated them near Embrun, and nearly all 
of them were captured. 

The defeat of these adventurers did not 
discourage others from following their exam- 
ple. An army of Saxons that had assisted Al- 
boin, crossed the Alps in the following year, 
animated by a thirst for vengeance and booty. 
They encamped near Estoublous, in Provence, 
and commenced pillaging the country. Mum- 
mol attacked them and forced them to leave 
their conquests, after abandoning the spoils 
they had taken. In the year 574, two hundred 
thousand Saxons entered the country, and ad- 
vanced along the banks of the Rhine toward 
the centre of the Frankish dominions. At Ly- 
ons they found a large army under Mummol, 
prepared to repel their advances. A battle 




S A S O N V7 AilRlOR 



INVASION OF THE LOMBARDS. 69 

ensued, in which the Saxons were routed with the loss of all their booty. On 
their retreat they attempted to avenge their loss upon the people of Auverone ; 
but the Auvergnats ransomed such of their friends as were captured with pieces 
of copper gilt, which the barbarians took for real gold. On their return to 
their own country, the Saxons found that the Suevi had established themselves 
there ; and many battles and much bloodshed took place before they could be 
brought to divide, amicably, possessions which were sufficiently ample for both. 

The Saxons having left France, the Lombards appeared again upon the 
scene. In 576, Amon, Zaban, and Rhodan, three chiefs who had distinguished 
themselves in Italy, each led a large army over the Alps. Rhodan halted 
before Grenoble, while Zaban went to besiege Valence, and Amon displayed 
his banners under the walls of Aries. From the plain of La Crau, the inva- 
ders drove all the flocks of the high Alps, which usually pastured there in 
bad seasons ; and, but for Mummol, the inhabitants would have been left deso- 
late. Rhodan was first attacked. He w^as wounded in the battle, but escaped 
with five hundred men into Italy. The remainder of his army perished on the 
field. Zaban was at this time on the return home, but Mummol outstripped 
him in speed, and cut his army to pieces in the neighbourhood of Ernbrun. 
Amon learning the fate of his countrymen, would not risk an engagement; 
but threw himself into one of the Alpine gorges, hoping to reach the Lom- 
bard plains by an unknown route. But the eternal snows of the mountains 
proved graves to the greater number of his followers, and all the booty which 
he had collected was abandoned. These repeated disasters made the Lombards 
more cautious in their hostility tow^ard the Franks ; and shortly afterwards 
their attention was engrossed too exclusively by their domestic troubles, to 
allow them any advantage from the dissensions and w^ars of their neighbours.* 

In 562, during the first campaign of Sigebert against the Avars, his 
brother Chilperic, who inherited a large share of the inhumanity of his father, 
embraced the opportunity to make himself master of Rheims and several other 
towns that had fallen to the share of his brother. Sigebert, as soon as he 
had freed himself of the Avars, turned upon and captured Soissons, with its 
defender Theodebert, son of Chilperic. He afterwards defeated Chilperic him- 
self, took from him the dominions he had captured, and would have deprived 
him of his kingdom, but for the interposition of his two brothers. Soissons 
was finally restored to its owner ; but Theodebert was not set at liberty until 
he had taken an oath never to bear arms against his uncle. 

Caribert, King of Paris, was addicted to the practice of polygamy. A 
damsel named Meroflede, the daughter of a wool-comber, with her sister, and 
not less than four other women, were accounted as his wives. His brother 
Chilperic also had several wives and many mistresses, of whom the most cele- 
brated was Fredegonde. This favourite supplanted, in the affections of the 

* Pictorial History of France 



70 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 



days, 



king, the Queen Audovere, who had raised her from the most humble station, 
by taking her into her service. Sigebert demanded in marriage Brunehaut, 
the daughter of Athanagilde, the King of the Visigoths in Spain. Chilperic 
then sued for the hand of Brunehaut's sister, and, in order to obtain her, put 
away all his other wives and concubines. Fredegonde, however, did not leave 
the palace ; she succeeded in winning back the love of the king, and so es- 
tranged him from his wife, that the latter demanded permission to return to her 
father. But she had brought to her husband a very valuable dowry, which 
he would be obliged to restore at her dismissal. His pride and his avarice 
both urged him to refuse her request : he endeavoured, without success, to 
soothe and console her with words and promises ; and finally gave direc- 
tions for disposing of her to a slave, who took charge of her chamber for one 
night. In the morning she was found dead ; the king mourned for her a few 
and then married Fredegonde. 

Brunehaut instigated her husband to 
avenge the murder of her sister ; and he united 
his arms with those of his brother Gontran 
for that purpose. Chilperic was compelled 
to fly to Burgundy, the inhabitants of which 
had proclaimed their independence and elected 
a king. On promising to give to Brunehaut 
the possessions which he had received with 
her sister, Chilperic was allowed to return 
to his capital. Caribert had died some time 
since, and his possessions had been divided 
among his brothers. Sigebert, returning from 
the w^ar with the Avars, ibund Gontran 
again engaged in repelling the Saxons and 
the Lombards. He took advantage of his distresses by seizing the important 
city of Aries. Chilperic entered the province of the Loire, whence he was 
soon driven by Mummol. In 573 he renewed the struggle, and was again 
beaten. He then united his forces with those of Gontran against Sigebert, 
who awaited the advance of his German allies, in order to be able more 
fully to retaliate the atrocities which his revengeful brothers were commit- 
ting. He induced Gontran to leave his ally to his fate ; defeated and slew 
Theodebert near Angouleme ; reduced Chilperic to submission, and marched 
triumphantly through Neustria. His wife, Brunehaut, hastened with her three 
children to Paris, in order to share in her husband's triumph, and threw the 
weight of her influence into the scale against the murderer of her sister. The 
fate of Chilperic seemed finally decided. Sigebert denounced death against 
him, and forthwith proclaimed himself King of Soissons. He received every- 
where the homage of his brother's subjects, who immediately hastened to 




BRU BE H AUT. 



— ^^^^rS^^^ 




DEATH OF SIGEBERT. 73 

abandon the cause of a prince who seemed now to be effectually deposed. But 
though the arms and entreaties of Chilperic had failed to procure for him the 
mercy of his brother, the genius of Fredegonde was successfully exerted to 
save him from destruction. She had been aroused by the triumphant insults 
of Brunehaut, and had determined to compass the destruction of both Sige- 
bert and his queen. To make sure of the success of her plan, she poisoned 
the daggers with which she armed her agents. These, under pretence of import- 
ant business, gained access to the king in the midst of his army, and ended 
his reign and his existence by striking him with their long daggers. (A. D. 575.) 
As soon as he was dead, the Neustrians renewed their fidelity to Chilperic, 
and the Austrasian army was disbanded. Fredegonde despatched immediate 
orders to Paris to seize Brunehaut and her children; and, when this was done, 
Chilperic was proclaimed King of Austrasia. In the confusion which followed, 
Childebert, the eldest son of Sigebert, was aided in escaping from his prison 
by Gondebaud, who hastened with him to his father's capital, and caused him, 
on Christmas day, to be proclaimed king. As he was but a child, and the 
exigencies of the times required able ministers to guide and direct his king- 
dom, the Austrasians appointed a Mayor of the Palace, who was empowered 
to perform the functions of royalty, in the king's name ; and who, by keeping 
a perpetual guard over his royal ward, managed to reduce the real authority 
of the sovereign to insignificance. Thus was commenced the reign of the Rois 
faineants, or sluggards, the subversion of whose dominion finally put an end 
to the Merovingian dynasty. 

Brunehaut, banished to Rouen, lived in continual dread of the cruelty of 
Fredegonde. While at Paris she had been seen by Merovsus, a son of Chilperic, 
by his former queen, Audovere, who now took advantage of her vicinity to his 
mother's residence in Mans, to pay the widowed queen a visit. He went to Rouen 
at Easter in 576, and offered himself in marriage to the beautiful queen, who 
accepted him in the hope that she would thus obtain a means of revenging 
herself upon Fredegonde. But proper secrecy was not observed ; the news of 
the wedding was immediately carried to Soissons, and the act of his son was 
represented to Chilperic as the commencement of a rebellion. Flying to Rouen, 
the king surprised the bride and bridegroom, sent the latter a prisoner to 
Soissons, and gave to the former her liberty, supposing that she would imme- 
diately seek the protection of her father. But she fled to Metz, and animated 
the Austrasians to defend their country against Chilperic, who came against it, 
breathing implacable enmity towards Brunehaut and Childebert. Mummol met 
him at Limoges, cut to pieces twenty thousand of his warriors, and forced him 
to make a disgraceful peace. 

Chilperic now vented his spleen upon the unfortunate Merovwus. He 

threw him into prison, cut off his long hair, divorced him from his wife, 

ordained him as a priest, and sent him under guard to the abbey of St. Calais, 

in Maine. On the way he escaped from his escort, and fled to the sanctuary 

Vol. it. 10 



74 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

of St. Martin in Tours, where Bishop Gregory afforcled him protection. Chil- 
peric demanded the delivery of the refugee, but the good old Gregory refused. 
Chilperic then denied the right of the church to withhold criminals from jus- 
tice, and wrote a letter to Saint Martin for a decision on the subject. He 
deposited it with the necessary materials for writing an answer, on the tomb 
of the martyr ; but the good bishop disdained to practise the usual chicanery 
of the priests, and the letter remained unanswered. Merovffius also consulted 
supernatural agencies. A celebrated magician had predicted the year, the day, 
and the hour of the death of Caribert, King of Paris. He now informed the 
prince that, in one year, Chilperic would be in the grave, Merovseus on the 
throne, and his brothers in prison. 

A blind confidence in the truth of this prediction, caused the destruction 
of the superstitious prince. Narrowly escapmg several attempts made by 
Fredegonde's agents to capture or assassinate him, Merovseus escaped to Bru- 
nehaut, at Metz. She received him kindly, but the Austrasians commanded 
him to leave the kingdom. Lingering near Rheims, he received a deputation 
from the people of Therouanne, requesting him to come as sovereign to their 
city, and assuring him that the whole country was ready to take arms in his 
defence. He set out for the city; but on the way the pretended ambassadors 
proved to be his gaolers, acting under the orders of Fredegonde, who directed 
him to be slain. When Chilperic, informed of his capture, came to see him, 
he found him dead. 

By the influence of the queen, Pretextat, Bishop of Rouen, was deprived 
of his office, and banished to the Isle of Jersey, as a punishment for having 
performed the marriage ceremony at the nuptials of Merovseus. After the 
death of Chilperic, he returned to Rouen, and resumed his episcopal functions ; 
but the hatred of the queen had not abated. Soon after his return, as he 
was chanting mass in the cathedral, before a large congregation, an assassin 
made his way through the crowd to the altar, and plunged a dagger into the 
right breast of the bishop. Such was the surprise or indifference of the people, 
that the culprit, though seen and known, was suffered to escape, v/hile the 
bishop fell " at the foot of the altar, staining the pavement with his welling 
blood."* 

In 580, Fredegonde having lost her three sons by sickness, and mad- 
dened at the thought that Clovis, another son of Chilperic and Audovere, 
would succeed to his father's power, accused him of having poisoned her chil- 
(hen. Chilperic caused the unoffending prince to be arrested and murdered, 
and his sister was forced to take the veil. Audovere herself, after having seen 
the destruction of her family, fell a victim to the vices of the ungrateful woman 
whom she had raised to power. 

In 577, Gontran having lost both of his own sons, adopted Childebert, and 

* Pictorial History of Fnince. 




DEATH OF BISHOP PRHTKSTAT. 



GONDOVALD. 



77 



_,(_,,t>oaJii> 




FREDEOONDE. 



declared himself Protector of Austrasia. The 
union of these two princes prevented Chil- 
peric from waging war with either of them. 
But he sought a quarrel with Varoc of 
Brittany, who, ready for the contest, speedily 
overran Poitou with his troops. Chilperic 
suffered defeat in this war, and was nearly 
ruined, when by an opportune alliance with 
Childebert, he terminated hostilities, gain- 
ing from Gontran several places which had 
interfered with the compactness of his do- 
minions. All things seemed now to prosper 
with the husband of Fredegonde ; but the 
passions of his queen involved her in difficulties, and caused her husband's 
destruction. He accidentally discovered an intrigue which she maintained 
with a lover named Landry, and he withdrew from her presence to fall a 
victim to her fears. He was murdered as he dismounted from his horse, on 
returning from the chase. His hand was still resting on the shoulder of an 
attendant, when a strange man suddenly sprung upon him, and inflicted 
several wounds wuth a dagger. He fell to the ground, with the blood gush- 
ing from his wounds and his mouth, and died before he could be removed into 
the house. 

Fredegonde, taking her infant son, and all the money and jewels she 
was able to collect, sought sanctuary in the cathedral at Paris. She imme- 
fliately applied herself to gain the affections of the Parisians, by the liberal 
employment of gold and good words, and wrote an appeal to Gontran on be- 
half of " a realm without a master, and a young prince of four months old, 
whom his mother dared not confide to others." Gontran listened to her prayer, 
and hastened to Paris to defend the infant thus confided to his guardianship. 
As he entered one gate of the city with a band of faithful followers, Childe- 
bert appeared at the other, expecting to derive some benefit from the unset- 
tled state of affairs. The Parisians refused to admit him into the city ; and 
a civil war would have ensued, had not other troubles arose which demanded 
the whole attention of both the rival kings. 

A woman had once brought into the notice of the Austrasian king, Gon- 
dovald, an infant, whom she asserted to be a son of Clotaire I., and whose 
hair she had suffered to fall on his shoulders, like that of the princes of the 
royal line. But Clotaire refused to acknowledge him, and caused his hair to 
be cut off; and the Franks applied to him the derisive title of Ballomez, or 
" mock prince." He afterw^ards went to Italy, where he married a wealthy 
Greek lady, and then removed with her to Constantinople. Some Austrasian 
ambassadors to that city, saw him and induced him to resume his claims upon 
the Franks. When he landed in France in 582, he was joined by Mummol, 



78 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

Gontran Bosun, Didier, and others. Their example favoured his progress, and 
he was speedily crowned as their king by the people of Aquitaine. As, ac- 
cording to custom, he was being carried round the camp on a shield, his foot 
slipped, and he nearly lost his equilibrium. The superstitious Franks regarded 
this omen as unfortunate ; but Muramol and the other leaders forwarded his 
cause, and nearly all the native authorities in the south enlisted themselves 
under his banner. Toulouse and Bordeaux fell into his hands, and he was 
preparing to press forward in a second campaign and finish the war, when a 
Burgundian army checked his advances by capturing the city of Poitiers. All 
the tortures known to the age were applied to punish the inhabitants for their 
rejection of the Merovingian rulers ; and the pillage was carried to such excess, 
that the bishop was forced to break a chalice belonging to the altar service, 
and share its pieces among the soldiery. 

An unexpected alliance between Gontran and Childebert disconcerted all 
the plans of the insurgents, and spread terror throughout their camp. Didier, 
with his vassals, deserted the standard of Gondovald, who was forced to seek 
for safety in Couvennes, a town built by Pompey, on the top of a steep 
mountain. The people prepared to sustain a siege ; but Mummol did not wish 
to feed them, and therefore sent them to meet the enemy, who, he said, had 
arrived in a neighbouring plain. When they returned they found their own 
gates shut against them ; antl the Burgundians now really arriving, heightened 
their misery. 

Gondovald paid dearly for suffering this act of perfidy to be done in his 
name. The besiegers were unable to accomplish their designs by force, their 
engineers pronouncing the place impracticable ; but their gold proved more 
efficient than their arms. A Burgundian emissary succeeded in bribing Mum- 
mol to desert his master, whose cause was evidently desperate ; and the sub- 
ordinate chiefs followed the example of their leader. In a general council 
they advised Gondovald to submit himself to his brother's direction, promising 
to intercede for him. He saw from this that he had been betrayed ; and he 
calmly signified his assent to their plans. He suffered himself to be conducted 
from the town and delivered into the custody of Ollon, Count of Burgundy, 
and Gontran Bosan, who had long since deserted his cause. As soon as they 
had delivered him up, Mummol and his follower retired into the citadel and 
closed the gates, while the unfortunate prince began to descend the mountain 
with his merciless enemies. On the way he was struck from behind by Ollon, 
who exclaimed, " Behold your Ballomez, the son and brother of kings." He 
was immediately pierced in the side by a lance thrust beneath his cuirass. 
He endeavoured to rise, but Bosan seized a large stone, hurled it upon his 
head, and crushed him to death. His barbarous enemies dragged his body by 
a rope through the camp, plucked out his hair and beard, and finally left his 
mangled body to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey in the plains. 

The faithless conduct of those who had tempted the unfortunate Gondo- 



MASSACRE OF COUVENNES. 



79 




vaM from his peaceful home in Constantinople, was now rewarded. The gates 
of the city w^ere opened at dawn on the following day, and the chiefs pre- 
pared to depart. But the besiegers immediately commenced a fearful massacre, in 
which the aged chief, Mummol, perished, with all the warriors, priests, citizens, 
women, and children, who had abode in Couvennes during the siege. When 
the sword could find no more victims, the town was set on fire and reduced 
to a mass of blackened stones. 

This tragedy made a lasting impression upon the Aquitanians, strength- 
ening their hatred against their conquerors, and teaching them their power 
when animated by a firm and patriotic spirit. We soon after find notices of 
sovereigns of Aquitaine independent of those of Neustria and Austrasia. 

It has been asserted that Fredegonde had sent messengers to Gondovald 
inviting him to come to Paris, and that her action was reported to Gontran. 
However true this may be, that king altered his conduct towards her after 
this event, and determined to humiliate her. He appointed a council of re- 
gency to direct the government, compelled Fredegonde to withdraw to the 
castle of Vaudreuil, four leagues from Rouen, inquired into the circumstances of 
the death of Chilperic, and brought to popular recollection the death of Prince 
Chilperic, and of Merovseus. He finally, but without success, attempted to 
establish the illegitimacy of the young prince, Clotaire II. In the mean time, 
every opportunity of enlarging her power had been seized by Brunchaut. 



80 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

When her young son was sixteen years of age, she persuaded him to dismiss 
his council of regency, and intrust the care of the whole government to her- 
self. The leaders consented to this the more readily, as she already possessed 
much of the real power, and would be a dangerous opponent in a civil war. 
Her first step was a declaration of war against the King of the Visigoths. 
The other two Frankish monarchies were joined with Austrasia in this expe- 
dition, the whole being under the command of Gontran. It Avas entirely un- 
successful ; and the commander was fain to conclude a treaty of peace (A. D. 588), 
which imposed on him the condition of relinquishing all attempts upon Sep- 
timania. 

Before Gontran had set out, two other wars had been kindled ; one with 
the Bretons, the other with the Lombards. The former drove back their 
invaders with disgrace and loss, and retaliated by continual predatory incur- 
sions into the territory of Neustria. In 590, the King of Orleans, as guar- 
dian for Clotaire II., sent two armies to punish them for their aggressions. 
But Varoc, retreating after a battle with one division, led his pursuers into 
the midst of a morass, and then turned furiously upon them and entirely de- 
feated them. The leaders of the other party concluded a treaty of mutual 
forbearance with Varoc, which was not observed. As the army was beginning 
the passage of the river Ouh, on its way home, it was attacked by Cannao, 
the son of Varoc. Those who were already over escaped, but four-fifths of 
the whole number perished, either by the swords of the assailants, or by 
drownino- in the river. Four years afterwards, the indomitable Bretons repelled 
another Frankish invasion, considerably extended their frontier, and added to 
their dominions several important towns that had hitherto paid tribute to 
Frankish rulers. 

About the year 586, the emperor, Maurice of Constantinople, concluded a 
treaty with Childebert, in which, for fifty thousand pieces of gold, the Frank 
kino- undertook to settle a quarrel of his own, under the show of reducing the 
Lombards to the imperial rule. But he disregarded his engagements, and fol- 
lowed the example of Theodebert, in treating friend and foe ahke. Both sides 
finally agreed to pay him more for his neutrality than he could have expected 
for the most active co-operation. But the Lombards, after a time, discontinued 
the payment of this subsidy, and an army of Franks and Allemanni was 
sent ao-ainst them in 5S5. This expedition failed, in consequence of the 
national dissensions of the allies. A second invasion, undertaken in 588, was 
defeated by Autharis, the Lombard monarch, with " more loss and dishonour 
than the Franks had sustained since the foundation of their monarchy." In 
590, however, they returned to the charge, so formidable in numbers, that 
Autharis withdrew with his treasures into the walled cities, between the Alps and 
the Apennines. But intemperance, disease, and desertion wasted the force of 
the invaders, while the twenty dukes, who led them, were engaged in useless 
disputes. After plundering the country for three months, they set out to re- 



THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. 81 

turn, and re-entered France with a multitude of captives, driven like yoked 
oxen before them. They were in such a destitute state, that they gave all 
their booty, their prisoners, their clothing, and even their arms, in exchange 
for food in the places through which they passed. 

By the perpetual exhibition of weakness and vice, the Merovingian princes 
had gradually allowed the power of the leudes (barons) to increase, while their 
own was diminished. The many wars in which the sovereigns had engaged, had 
produced little glory or gain ; and those of the leudes, who desired to aggran- 
dize themselves by increasing their private domains, were very unwilling to 
follow the standard of the king in an endless succession of foreign hostilities. 
The ancient inhabitants of the land were very restless, and perpetually received 
additions to their strength, in the foreigners whom the wars reduced to bond- 
age, and in the great tide of emigration which poured into the country from 
beyond the Rhine. The Franks, Saxons, Allemanni, and other tribes driven from 
their seats by new races pressing forward from the north, displaced their south- 
ern neighbours in their search for new homes. The ancient wars of the Cimbri 
and Teutones, seeking a home among the Gauls, seem to have been renewed 
in the Avaric, Lombard, and Saxon incursions. The primary cause of the 
great revolution which thus, from time to time, drove the Scythians and Scan- 
dinavians to the south-west, cannot be accurately ascertained, but it is unde- 
r\iable that the movement was continued till the ninth or tenth century. The 
wars of Thierry and Clotaire with the Thuringians and Saxons, and those of 
Theodebert and his successors in Italy, are ascribed by M. Guizot to the pres- 
sure from the north-east of new tribes, which were perpetually urging forward 
the old settlers, and compelling them to seek other colonies. " The warlike 
expeditions of the times," he says, " were not mere pillaging inroads, they 
were not expeditions undertaken for the purpose of plunder ; they were the 
result of necessity. The people, disturbed in their own settlements, pressed 
forward to better their fortune, and find new abodes elsewhere."* The Thu- 
ringians were impelled onward by the Danes, and these, in turn, by the Nor- 
mans, the Huns, the Bohemians, and the whole Slavonian race. 

Fredegonde endeavoured to turn to her account the troubles which impended 
over the country. The inhabitants of Soissons and Meaux, dissatisfied wuth 
her for holding her court at Vaudreuil, threw off their allegiance, and requested 
Childebert to give them his son, Theodebert, a child three years old, for king. 
He compUed, and the royal infant was inducted into his new kingdom, which 
was to be governed by a mayor of the palace, an officer now indispensable 
in the Frankish courts. Fredegonde protested against the usurpation, and 
implored Gontran to maintain the rights which he had guarantied to her son. 
But the growing disaffection of the leudes towards the Merovingian princes, 
now broke into an open rupture between Gontran and his court. He dared 



* Guizot's History of Civilization. 



Vol. II. 11 



82 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

not stir abroad in the streets of Orleans without a strong guard ; his edicts 
were treated with contempt, and the nobles were roaming over the country 
with their vassals, and fiUing every part of it with rapine and plunder. Gon- 
tran was of too feeble a character to repress these lamentable excesses, and 
Brunehaut dared not take a stand against those by whose sufferance she held 
her authority. Fredegonde, hoping to recover her former power, encouraged 
by her emissaries the discontent of the nobles in the other realms, and cau- 
tiously refrained from opposing those among her own adherents. It has been 
asserted that she organized a conspiracy against Childebert, which, however, 
was discovered and foiled , by the assassination of its chief, Rauchingue. A 
mark of the wealth of the leudes, is found in the fact that the royal coffers 
did not contain so much treasure as was found in the mansions and castles of 
this noble. 

Gontran and Childebert joined their forces, and punished all those who 
were concerned in this attempt. It was on this occasion that the celebrated 
treaty of Andelot was formed, by which the two kings agreed to surrender all 
deserters from each other, and the royal grants, or benejfces, were confirmed to 
their holders independent of any future disposition of the sovereign, for the 
time being, in whose territories they might lie. 

No sooner was this revolt against Childebert suppressed, than another was 
contemplated. Its authors were betrayed and punished. Egidius, the Bishop 
of Rheims, being implicated in this aff'air, was tried and pronounced guilty, 
and sentenced to be deposed and banished to Strasburg. 

In Neustria, two families had become involved in a mortal feud. Frede- 
gonde's attempts to conciliate them failed through the obstinacy of three men 
of one of the parties. The queen invited the three Franks to a banquet in 
the palace ; seated them all side by side upon a bench, plied them freely with 
wine, and, when they were intoxicated, gave a preconcerted signal to three 
men who waited behind them. Each of these at the same moment raised his 
axe ; the floor of the hall was stained with blood, and the opposition to the 
queen's authority was ended. This violation of the laws of hospitality, however, 
enraged the Franks, and they besieged the royal palace ; but the arrival of a 
party of faithful troops restored quiet. 

Young Clotaire, soon after, fell sick at Paris, and the physicians despaired 
of saving his life ; but his mother undertook the treatment of his disease, and 
succeeded in effecting a cure. Gontran had commenced a march for Paris, 
intending to take possession of the kingdom as soon as his nephew should die ; 
but the queen w^on him over to her friendship, and induced him to become 
godfather to her son, M^ho had not yet been baptized. The indolent, weak- 
minded, and inconstant Gontran died two years afterwards, when Clotaire II. 
was eleven years of age. Childebert inherited his kingdom, and thus became 
master of a realm three times as large as that of his cousin Clotaire. He 
immediately put his troops in motion for the acquisition of the smaller king- 



ST. COLUMB. 83 

dom; but Fredegonde quickly collected a small army which surprised and de- 
feated the invaders, and ravaged the territory of the enemy to the very gates 
of Rheims. 

A war with the Bretons, in which he was severely handled, and another 
with the Varni, whose name was stricken from the list of nations during its 
continuance, marked the remainder of the life of Childebert. He died in 596, 
leaving his kingdom to his two young sons, Theodebert and Thierry, and the 
care of the government to Brunehaut. 

Fredegonde immediately commenced enlarging the kingdom of Neustria, 
at the expense of her neighbours; and defeated an army which Brunehaut had 
sent to punish the aggression. She was advancing to Metz when she fell sick 
and died (A. D. 597), leaving behind her a name celebrated alike in the an- 
nals of infamy, and in the record of shrewd, able, and calculating rulers. 

Brunehaut survived her rival, and awoke from the panic under which she 
seems hitherto to have laboured. The Avars, who had continued to press 
upon the Rhine, were driven back in terror, and compelled to pay tribute. 
The Lombards renewed treaties of amity with the Austrasians, and the head 
of the church favoured Theodebert with the titles of most illustrious, most 
pious, and most Christian prince. But a revolt of chiefs soon after compelled 
Theodebert to banish Brunehaut from his kingdom. All deserted her, save a 
poor wood-cutter, named Didier, who met her as she was flying for her life, alone 
and on foot, in a wood on the frontiers of Champagne. He conducted her to 
the court of her grandson, Thierry. Here she was kindly received, and en- 
abled to reward the fidelity of Didier, who was made Bishop of Auxerre. At 
the court of Thierry she speedily organized a war for the recovery of the 
territory which Fredegonde had seized. The Neustrians were completely hum- 
bled, and the dominion of Clotaire was reduced to twelve counties, or governments 
of counts. During this war, Brunehaut procured the death of Bertoald, the 
mayor of the palace, who was too honest to be corrupted by her wiles, and 
too powerful to be openly displaced. Protadius, a Gallo-Roman, devoted to 
the interests of the queen, was chosen to fill the place of the virtuous Bertoald. 
The leudes, however, soon after put the new minister to death, in punishment 
for his having instigated the king to make war against Theodebert. 

About this time, too, the queen was opposed by St. Columb, a Scottish 
or Irish monk, who had founded a monastery of Culdees on the island of lona, 
and who now came to spread his doctrines among the Franks. The Pope 
had flattered the queen and her grandson with praises of their sanctity, and 
they now came to hear St. Columb preach, expecting the same servile adula- 
tion. But the worthy missionary saw sin in the same light whether practised 
by the highest or the meanest in the land ; and he accordingly reproached his 
royal listeners wath the viciousness of the lives they led, and refused to bless 
the children of the king, because of their illegitimacy. Brunehaut caused him 
to be apprehended, tried for heresy, and condemned to banishment from France. 



84 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 




ST. COI.UMB AND THE SOLDI ERE 



The soldiers sent to execute this sentence knelt at the feet of the holy man, 
and implored his forgiveness of the crime which they were forced to commit. 
The immorality of Brunehaut and Thierry being made known so publicly, the 
clergy began to take some notice of it, and a quarrel with them was conse- 
sequently commenced by the queen. 

In 610, the war which the queen had long endeavoured to bring on be- 
tween her grandsons, suddenly broke out. Clotaire remained neutral, deter- 
mined to move after one of the belligerents should be reduced. Theodebert 
fought a final battle on the plains of Tolbiac, where the great Clovis had 
gained his victory and abjured paganism. The battle was terrible : the com- 
batants fighting so desperately, and so crowded together, that whole battahons 
remained dead on the ground in then- ranks ; many standing upright, being 



DEATH OF BRUNEHAUT. 



85 




IJEAIII OF IIEROVJ: 1 



unable from the pressure of their 
comrades around them to fall to 
the <yround. Theodcbert was 
captured and sent a prisoner to 
Chalons, where Queen Brunehaut 
avenged herself foi- the indignity 
of being driven from his domi- 
nions, by putting him to death. 
His, son, Merovseus, w^ho was still 
a child, was seized at Cologne, 
in the pursuit after the battle, by 
a Burgundian soldier, who held 
him by the heels while he dashed 
his brains out- against a stone. 

Clotaire took advantage of 
the destruction of Theodebert's 
army to recover his old dominions, and he returned an answer of defiance when 
summoned by Thierry to surrender them. The latter then declared war, and was 
marching towards the frontier, when he fell sick and died in four days. (A. D. 613.) 
The eldest of his four sons was but ten years of age, and his grandmother 
was aged eighty, and odious to the Franks. Clotaire, therefore, advanced to 
the Rhine, and was everywhere acknowledged as king of the whole country. 
Brunehaut, knowing her fate should she fall into the power of Fredegonde's 
sons, mustered an army and sent it against him, under Varnachaire, the mayor 
of the palace. But her cause was entirely hopeless, and Varnachaire met the 
troops of Clotaire, lowered his banners, and returned with the foe as his 
acknowledged sovereign. Brunehaut was captured and brought to the camp 
of Clotaire, who submitted her to the tortures and insults of the soldiery for 
three days, and then paraded her through the camp on the back of a camel. 
At last she was fastened by the hair and one arm and one foot to the tail of a 
wild horse, and torn in pieces. Her remains were afterwards reduced to ashes 
in the camp-fires. 

Clotaire II. was a wise and pacific sovereign. Perceiving the dissatisfaction 
with which the leudes and the bishops bore the yoke of the Frankish sovereigns, 
he strove to conciliate them by granting all their just demands : renouncing his 
pretensions to naming bishops for the vacant sees in his dominions, abolishing 
all new imposts upon the people, and granting indemnity to the leudes for 
the losses they had sustained during the struggles of their masters for power. The 
leudes of Austrasia being desirous of having a king not subject to the throne 
of Neustiia, Clotaire, in 617, divided his dominions, giving Austrasia to his 
son Dagobert, then aged fifteen, and appointing Pepin mayor of the palace, 
and Bishop Arnoul the king's director. The young king was soon after forced 
into a struggle for his new kingdom by Bertoalde, chief of the Saxons, who 



86 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 




DEATH OF BRUNEHAOT. 



wished to free his countrymen from the heavy tribute they were forced to pay 
to the Merovingian princes. He invaded Austrasia, came suddenly upon Dago- 
bert, and compelled him to retire within his intrenchments. In the conflict, a 
Saxon approached near enough to the king to cleave his helmet with a sword. 
The Franks sustained a siege in their camp without stores or provisions, until 
Clotaire came to their relief. In order to hasten his march, Dagobert sent a 
messenger to him, with the pieces of his helmet and the hair which the sabre 
had cut from his head. Clotaire found the enemy encamped on the banks of 
the Weser, which separated them from him. Learning that the Saxons 
had circulated a report of his death, he took off his helmet, and suffered 
his long locks, already whitened by the troubles of his life, to float in 
the wind to show the enemy that he was still alive and able to chastise 
them. Being hailed by the Saxons with jeers and insults, he spurred his horse 
into the Weser, charged upon the midst of the enemy's line, struck Bertoalde 
to the earth, and cut off his head. This bold action stiuck terror into the 
hearts of the Saxons, and the sight of the head of their chief paraded on a 
lance, caused them to flee in all directions. The pursuit was continued for 
miles, and the earth w^as strewed wnth the bodies of men and horses, dead and 
dying. The Saxons who were taken prisoners, were measured by the sword 
of Clotaire, and all who exceeded it in height were put to death. Clotaire II. 
died at Clichy, in the year 628, at the age of forty-two ; having reigned over 
the kingdom of Neustria or Soissons from the time he was eight months old. 
By his death, Dagobert became sole master of the realm. He fixed the seat 
of his government at Paris, which was already regarded as the most important 
city in France. A half-brother of Dagobert, named Caribert, raised the standard 
of revolt; but he foimd no sup|X)rt, and was obliged to fly into Aquitaine. Dago- 



DAGOBERT. 



87 




bert, who was a stern and unflinching, but just and temperate monarch, 
bestowed upon Caribert the Aquitanian provinces, with the title of king. IJis 
dominion spread east and west from Rochelle to the Rhone, and was bounded 
on the south by the Pyrenees. 

Dagobert had the requisite courage and ability to make the laws respected 
by the leudes and great crown vassals, and all the people reverenced his char- 
acter for justice and impartiahty. He travelled through his kingdom, restoring 
order wherever he came. The popularity he thus acquired is shown by the 
name conferred upon him by the lower classes : " The good Kino- Dagobert." 
But the Austrasians were not so far advanced in civilization as to be fitted 
for regular government. They regarded the laws which he prescribed to them 
as infringing on their privilege of seizing the lands and fortunes of their neigh- 
bours in order to better their own. 

During the reign of Clotaire, the Slavonians peopled not only the banks 
of the Drave and the Save, but Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Croatia. One of the 
tribes into which the race was divided, was that of the Venedes, which had 
been reduced to slavery by the invaders of their territory, the Avars. In war 
their masters always placed them in the front rank, where they bore the brunt 
of the enemy's onset ; but afterwards allowed them no share of the spoils. 
They therefore revolted; and a Prankish merchant named Samon, coming, with 
others of his countrymen, to trade with them, found them in arms against 
their oppressors. The traders deposited their merchandise in the camp, and 



88 ESTABLTSIIMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

marched with the Venedes to hiittle. By their example and instructions, the 
Venedcs became formidable, and Anally achieved their independence. They 
rewarded the disinterestedness of Samon by electing him to be king. He was 
seated on their throne when, in 630, a company of Frank merchants coming 
to trade with his subjects, was attacked and robbed. Samon gave them no 
redress, and they laid their complaints before Dagobert. Fearful of offending 
his subjects, Samon would not punish the offenders, even at the command of 
Dagobert, who, consequently, led three armies into his territory. One was 
composed of the Allemanni, the second of the Lombards ; these two were 
successful : but the third, the Austrasian division, retired from the Slavonic 
territories, leaving their tents and baggage in the hands of the enemy. Samon 
then led a host into Thuringia, and ravaged it for three years unopposed. The 
Austrasians would not fight for Dagobert, the justice-loving king, even to 
defend their own homes from invasion. But when he gave them for a sove- 
reign his young son Sigebert, then only three years old, they flew to arms, 
and drove the invaders from the country. But the Neustrians became jealous, 
and demanded that Dagobert's second son should be an independent king over 
them. The good king, willing to please them, made his new-born son Clovis 
king over both Neustria and Burgundy, and reserved to himself power and 
rank only as the natural guardian and protector of his children. An igno- 
minious transaction, which soon after occurred, has left a dark stain on the 
character of Dagobert. In 630, the Bulgarians attempted, Hke the Venedes, 
to w^in their independence of the Avaric yoke, but they \Tere defeated. Nine 
thousand of them sought shelter in the dominions of the King of France, who 
promised to protect them. But their pagan manners displeased him ; and he 
issued an order, in the execution of which all but seven hundred were mur- 
dered. These escaped to their former enemies, the Venedes. 

The Spanish nobles, being discontented with the government of their king, 
Suintila, one of them, named Sisenand, conceived a plan for transferring the 
crown from the brow of the king to his own, and applied to Dagobert for 
assistance. The Frankish monarch agreed to aid him in the execution of his 
scheme, provided that Sisenand would guaranty to him, in the event of suc- 
cess, the possession of a celebrated dish of gold, which had been given by 
jEtius to the son of Theodoric, after the defeat of Attila the Hun, at Chalons. 
This dish, one of the most valued national treasures, weighed five hundred 
pounds, and w^as set with many precious stones. Sisenand succeeded in obtain- 
ing the sovereignty without the aid of the Franks, but he faithfully performed 
his promise of giving to Dagobert the golden dish. The Spaniards, however, 
did not relish the idea of parting with a relic esteemed as much for the asso- 
ciations connected wath it as for its actual value. Some of them, therefore, 
formed a band, waylaid the bearers of the dish at one of the mountain passes, 
and repossessed themselves of it by force. Dagobert demanded its restoration ; 
but the Visigoths were determined that war only should wrest it from them, 




THE DISH OF DAGOHERT. 



DEFEAT OF THE GASCONS 



91 




SUBMISSION OF THE GASCONS TO DAGOBERT. 



and the Frank ruler accepted in lieu of it the sum of two hundred thousand 
pennies in gold, supposed to be equal to nearly seven hundred thousand dollars. 
The army which had been collected to advance the interests of Sisenand, 
was now sent by Dagobert against Amandus, Duke of the Gascons, who 
desired to take from Dagobert the guardianship of the infant sons of Caribert, 
who had died in the third year of his reign. The Gascons were defeated in 
battle, pursued to their mountain fastnesses, and compelled to accede to the 
hard terms imposed by the conquerors. They offered submission to Dagobert, 
who granted them pardon and made a peace w'ith them, which was preserved 
until his death : then they resumed their struggle for independence. The army 



92 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

which reduced the Gascons was not disbanded until it had terrified the Bre- 
tons into submission. Their king, Judicael, came with his retinue to resign 
the royal title to Dagobert and implore his pardon and friendship. The good 
king gave him the dignity of Count, loaded him with presents, and sent him 
to resume the government of his own country. During this visit Judicael 
refused to partake of a banquet with the king, but shared in the frugal meal 
of the Chancellor Dadon, Archbishop of Rouen. 

On the 19th of January, 638, Dagobert died at Clichy, and was buried 
in the abbey of St. Denis. For half a century none of his predecessors had 
exercised so much power over the nobles and the clergy as he possessed ; after 
his death, the princes of the Merovingian race became so completely degenerate 
as not to deserve the title of sovereign. The mayors of the palace made 
decrees, and the authority of the king was used to sanction them, and to pro- 
cure for the ministers a large share of the profits arising from wars and trea- 
ties. The nobles were beginning to establish themselves in castles and for- 
tresses, and to assemble round them a retinue or court of freemen, and a 
number of serfs or bond-tenants, to cultivate their domains in time of peace, 
and to follow their standard in time of war. The larger estates were begin- 
ning to come under the laws of hereditary ownership, and being possessed 
of almost regal prerogatives, the fiefs were weaned from their original lord. 
The object of the king was to repress the power and privileges of the feuda- 
tories, while they laboured incessantly for their extension, and took advantage of 
every occasion to lessen the ability of the king to recover the sovereignty 
which was gradually receding from him. The mayors of the palace were 
selected from among the principal leudes, whose interests were identical with 
their own ; and thus, even when a tyrannical measure which they had originated 
rendered the name of the king obnoxious, the indignant nobles esteemed the 
mayors of the palace as friends and partisans. Ega was mayor of the palace 
of Clovis, the young king of Neustria and Burgundy, and Pepin de Landen 
exercised the same functions at the court of Sigebert of Austrasia. Both pos- 
sessed regal power, and forced the puppets, in whose names they acted, to 
acquiesce in every measure they proposed. Meanwhile the aristocracy strug- 
gled against the king, the king against the aristocracy, and the church against 
both ; each aiming at a complete independence, now gaining an advantage from 
the weakness of its opponents, now losing at an unguarded point. 

Whilst the successors of Clovis were thus gradually sinking into oblivion 
at home, their tributaries began to aspire to freedom. During the war with 
the merchant-king, Samon, Radulfe received the title of Duke of Thuringia, 
with a high military appointment. When the war was ended, he refused to 
resign his extraordinary powers, and successfully resisted an attempt made by 
Sigebert at coercion. The Franks retired from the struggle, and thus this 
part of Germany became free and independent. 

In 650, Sigebert died, and the powerful mayor of the palace, Grimoald, 



REVOLT OF THE AUSTRASIANS. 93 

determined to obtain for his family the name as well as the substance of roy- 
alty. He placed his son Childebert, seven years of age, upon the throne, cut 
oflf the long hair of Dagobert, son of Sigebert, sent him to a monastery in 
Ireland, and circulated a report* of his death. But the Austrasians were not 
yet prepared for this change, and they abhorred one who betrayed his trust. 
They therefore revolted, pillaged the palace, and sent Grimoald and his son, 
prisoners, to Clovis, who put them to death. In 656, Clovis also died, leav- 
ing three infant children, Clotaire III., Childeric II., and Thierry III., to 
inherit his realm. Neustria was given to Clotaire III. ; but Burgundy and 
Austrasia were not favoured with a sovereign until Clotaire died, four years 
after his accession. Then Austrasia received Childeric II., and a mayor of 
the palace, and Burgundy was ruled by Ebroin, a mayor, in the name of 
Thierry III. But the Burgundians soon after revolted, cut off the hair of 
Thierry, and placed him in the monastery of Luxeuil as a prisoner. He became 
a monk of his own accord, and entered a cell in the abbey of St. Denis. 
Burgundy was then allied with Austrasia. Neustria came under the care of 
Ebroin, as mayor of the palace, though without a sovereign. 

Childeric II. was soon involved in a struggle with the leudes, which 
terminated fatally to himself. He summoned the Bishop Leger, the leader of 
the Burgundian malcontents, to answer an accusation of treason at the Easter 
festival in 673. The king determined in his wrath to slay the bishop with 
his own hand ; he entered the cathedral where the prelate was officiating, and 
called to him to come forth. The undaunted bishop heeded not his cries, but 
finished the service. At its close, he went boldly to seek the king in the 
royal apartments ; his fearless aspect overawed the angry monarch, and he 
escaped with his life. He was, however, sent to Luxeuil, and there imprisoned 
with his former adversary Ebroin. Here they became friends, but took oppo- 
site sides when the death of Childeric restored them to liberty. The leudes 
looked upon the attack made on the bishop as aimed at them ; and their anger 
at this circumstance was increased by the imprudence of Childeric, who, in 
the course of the year, caused a nobleman named Bodilon, to be tied to a 
stake and publicly beaten for some offence. A few days afterwards, as he w^as 
travelHng in a forest near Chelles, with his queen and his two sons, Bodilon 
attacked them at the head of his followers, and massacred them all except the 
second son, w^ho contrived to escape. 

A reign of terror now commenced. Governor made war on governor ; 
bands of outlaws started up in every part of the kingdom ; the husbandmen 
fled to the cities for safety, and the fields were not tilled. Ebroin and Leger 
began to oppose each other, and Thierry, exchanging the cowl for the crown, 
claimed from the leudes his brother's throne. Leger supported his claim, and 
he eventually became king. Leger, however, lost his fife in the contest ; and 
being regarded by the people as a martyr, he was afterwards canonized by 
the Pope. The exiled Dagobert returned from his banishment in Ireland and 



94 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 




■RDER OF ClIILnERIO AND THE ROYAL FAMILY. 



assumed the title of King of Austrasia ; but he was speedily assassinated. 
Martin and Pepin, descendants of Grimoald the mayor of the palace, who had 
exiled Dagobert, were in 679 invested by their countrymen with the chief 
power. They still, however, were called Dukes. Ebroin opposed them 
with little success, and he had recourse to assassination to remove them 
from his path. Duke Martin fell a victim to his arts in 681, but Pepin 
escaped. In 682, a Frank, named Hermanfrid, whom Ebroin had attempted 
to deprive of his possessions, attacked the palace of the mayor, put him to 
death, and fled for safety to Duke Pepin. That dignitary prepared to go to 
war with Berthaire, the successor of Ebroin, and both parties did so in the 
name of the king. That unfortunate person was in the hands of Berthaire, 
who brought him into his camp to give colour to his proceedings. The two 
armies met at Testry in Vermandois, where, after a decisive conflict, the 
followers of Pepin remained masters of the field. Berthaire and Thierry fled 
with their followers, but they were pursued, and the king was captured. 
Berthaire was killed by his own soldiers, and Thierry carried to Metz, the 
capital of Austrasia, to assume the dignified office of a Roi faineayit, under 
the control of his servant, Duke Pepin, the actual sovereign of France. 

The Bretons, the Aquitanians, the Bavarians, the AUemanni, the Saxons, 
and the Frisons, were all in arms, anxious to commence a struggle for inde- 
pendence. The Atlantic and the Elbe, the Pyrenees and the British Channel, 
were the nominal Hmits of the empire of the Franks at this period ; but the 



^^»^'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^-M^f^c-. ^?^e^c ^.-^^^ 



'fm^^ 




PEPIN D'HERISTAL. 97 

realm was sadly shattered, and on the point of fallmg into a thousand pieces, 
when Pepin d'Heristal arose to effect its regeneration. Personal ambition, an 
enlarged philanthropy, causing him to seek the greatest extension of human 
happiness, or whatever other motive may be assigned to the conduct of the great 
Pepin, it is certain that he was one of those men " to whom," according to 
M. Guizot,* " the spectacle of society in a state of anarchy or immobihty is 
revolting and almost unbearable ; it occasions them an intellectual shudder, as a 
thing that should not be ; they feel an unconquerable desire to change it ; to 
restore order ; to introduce something general, regular, and permanent, into the 
world which is placed before them." 

In the midst of his labours for the re-estabhshment of law and order 
among the leudes, Pepin was called to the field by a revolt of the Frisons, 
who, headed by their duke, Radbode, declared their independence. Pepin sud- 
denly marched into their territory with a large army, defeated them twice, 
and compelled them to defray the expenses which he had incurred in reducing 
them. He quartered his army upon them during the winter, and marched 
back to France in the spring. On his return he summoned an assembly of 
the states ; a national institution, the neglect of which by the Frankish sove- 
reigns had greatly increased the previous troubles. It met in March 690. 
The nobles and bishops had equal votes, and equal privileges were assigned to 
the clergy and inferior laity. The laws passed at this meeting provided for 
the government of the clergy, as well as the laity. The poor were not for- 
gotten. Wards and orphans were guarantied protection, and laws were passed 
regulating the administrations of guardians. In royal robes, upon the throne 
sat Jung Thierry, a silent spectator of the glorious attempt at reform made 
in his name by the presiding genius of the country. His palace-prison received 
him again when the meeting adjourned, and kept him from the world until 
Pepin again summoned him to take part in another pageant. As soon as the 
Champ des Mars had broken up, Pepin laid aside the character of the legislator 
for that of the warrior ; the Frisons having recommenced hostilities as soon as 
he had left their country. The pressure from the north-east forced these Ger- 
man tribes, eVen against their will, to make war for new settlements upon 
their neighbours. Their struggles were incessant. The Frisons, the Saxons, 
the Bavarians, and others, were impelled by the whole Slavonic race, and 
oiher nations embarked in the great south-western migrations. So constantly 
were these wars waged, that the author of the annals of Metz, speaking of the 
year 713, when Pepin lay sick at his house in Jopil, distinguishes it as " the 
year in which was no war."t 

Besides foreign enemies, the leudes of the three great divisions of the king- 
dom, finding that they had lost rather than gained by the change of masters, 
openly evinced their hostility towards the family of Pepin. The minister made 

* Guizot's History of Civilization. t Pictorial History of France. 

Vol. II. 13 



98 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

his two sons, Drogon and Griraoald, mayors of Burgundy and Neustria, but 
both of them fell in the struggle for power. The old man then appointed his 
grandson Theodoald his successor in the office of mayor of Austrasia, with 
power over the whole empire. He soon after died at Jopil, in December 714. 
Thierry III. had died in 690. After him came Clovis III., who in five years 
gave place to Childebert III. Childebert had been followed by Dagobert III. 
No change had been effected by the frequent succession of sovereigns; they 
came like shadows after each other, and lived in utter seclusion, except when 
Pepin made a show for their amusement or his own ends, and suffered them 
to sit a few hours upon a golden throne. His will was law as absolute to 
them as to the lowest of their subjects. At the time of his death, his grand, 
son was eight years of age, and the puppet-king not sixteen. This absurd 
arrangement was soon set aside. While the little mayor was travelling to 
Paris with his mother, his attendants were attacked and routed by a party of 
the turbulent nobles ; the mayor being saved only by the flight of his mother. 
The Neustrians then elected Rainfroy to the office of mayor, and recognised 
as king Chilperic II., the second son of Childeric II., who had escaped when 
Bodilon slew his father's family. Chilperic was an active and intelligent prince, 
and one wdio would probably have destroyed much, if not all, of the authority 
of the mayors, had he continued on the throne. Having established quiet in 
his own kingdom, he advanced against Austrasia, which being at the same 
time attacked by the Prisons and Saxons, seemed about to fall beneath the 
impending calamities. A great man was needed, and accordingly one arose, 
who not only quieted the troubles of France, but saved the whole of Chris- 
tendom from desolation at the hands of the Mahommedans. This hero was 
Charles, a natural son of Pepin d'Heristal, who had quarrelled with him in 
consequence of his youthful excesses, and had made no provision for him at 
his death. He w-as twenty-five years of age, endowed with even more than 
the military talents of his father, gifted with the most insurmountable courage, 
and a frame capable of enduring great hardships. Gathering round him from 
the Austrasian leudes a number of followers daring as himself, he declared 
against a female reign. Having succeeded in taking the power from the hands 
of his stepmother and her grandson, he turned \ipon and repulsed the Germans 
on all sides. With a small but heroic army he then marched against the 
Neustrian invaders under Rainfroy and King Chilperic. 

They were superior to him in numbers, and he trusted more to stratagem 
than to force. Finding them encamped under the walls of the palace of 
Amblet, he drew up his little army on a height overlooking the royal demesne. 
(A. D. 716.) In the night a trusty follower was sent into the camp of King 
Chilperic to commence the battle. He cried out that the Austrasians were 
attacking the camp, then ran into a tent and wounded several of the sleeping 
soldiers. Irretrievable confusion ensued. Every one, expecting instant death, 
thought only of flight, and the noise brought Charles upon them in reality. 



THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 



99 



The victory was already won. The Austrasians had merely to slay the fugi- 
tives, which they did with great good- will. Some of the Neustrians took 
refuge in the church of Amblet, and remained there till Charles granted them 
conditions of peace. Among them w^as one who came, lame and bleeding, to 
claim justice from the victorious chief upon one of the soldiers, who, he alleged, 
had wounded him when within the walls of the church, and had thereby 
violated the right of sanctuary. Charles summoned the offender, who became 




THE FUGITIVE 'WOnNDED -WHEN SEEKING SANCTUARY. 



very indignant at the charge, explaining it by stating that when he struck 
the Neustrian on the heel, his body might have been in the church, but his 
leg was certainly without ; a satisfactory refutation of the charge of sacrilege 
in his own mind as well as in that of the chief, who accordingly dismissed the 
complaint. 

By the following spring, the brave and the warlike from all parts of the 
country had assembled around the banners of the young hero, who resolved 
whilst the Germans were preparing for an invasion, to crush the power of 
Rainfroy and Chilperic. This was effected by a victory gained on the 19th 
of March, 717, at Vinci. Charles then marched upon Paris, and caused him- 
self to be proclaimed mayor of the palace. It was not, however, till 720, that 
the civil war was ended. Chilperic 11. became a roi faineant xmder the vic- 
torious Charles, and Rainfroy was pardoned and made Count of Angers. 

From 720 till 731, Charles was busily occupied in completing the great 
work of reform commenced by his father, and in repelling foreign aggressions. 



100 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

In the last-named year, he had for some offence marched against Eudes, the 
Duke of Aquitaine, who was engaged in watching the Saracens in Spain, and 
w^ho avoided a war by making concessions. He had scarcely reached Paris 
when Eudes, almost alone and in the deepest despair, came to visit him, and 
implore his aid against the Saracens, who had burst like a whirlwind upon his 
country. Charles saw the danger in which his own dominions were thus placed, 
and he readily determined to march against the invaders before the forces of 
Eudes should be totally destroyed. He soon after gained the victory which 
has made his name so familiar, in a plain between Poitiers and Tours. In 
this battle his blows were dealt so vigorously upon the heads of the Saracens 
that he received the surname of Martel (the Hammer). Thus he broke the 
power of the Arabs north of the Pyrenees, and terminated their career of 
western conquests. Charles was engaged in almost continual warfare, princi- 
pally with the Saracens and Septimanians, from this time till his death in Octo- 
tober 741. 

At the death of Charles Martel, his power was divided between his two 
sons, Pepin and Carloman ; but Grippon, a third son, seized some of the pro- 
vinces of Pepin, and was only dispossessed by misfortunes in the war which 
followed in consequence. The Aquitanians, the Bavarians, and Allemanni 
took advantage of the civil dissensions to rise in revolt, and had the rulers 
been Merovingian princes, the power of the Franks would have been destroyed. 
But Pepin and Carloman saw their danger, united their arms to oppose it, and 
the rebels everywhere returned to their allegiance. The Austrasians, in their 
council, represented Carloman as reigning prince, while the council of Soissons 
in 744, gives the date as that of the reign of the roi faineant Childeric III. 
But the crown which was just about to settle on his brow, was thrust aside 
by Carloman, who A^oluntarily resigned his rank and power, and entered into 
a monastery. (A. D. 745.) Pepin, left sole ruler of the kingdom, took Grip- 
pon from the confinement in which he had been placed, and gave him a 
considerable share of power. 

The ungrateful prince was nevertheless, dissatisfied. He encouraged the 
disaffection of the Saxons, and suddenly leaving the court with his friends 
and retainers, he set up his standard on the banks of the Weser. Pepin, as 
soon as he w^as informed of this defection, collected an army of a hundred 
thousand Venedes, and burst upon the Saxon territory with the force of a 
thunder-storm. The country was tranquillized by converting it into a desert, 
and the Venedes were suffered to plunder and ravage it for four years. Grip- 
pon fled to the court of his maternal grandfather, Odilon, Count of Bavaria. 
But Pepin, moving w^ith his usual alacrity, defeated him in the first battle, 
and took him prisoner. According to the Prankish ideas he deserved the 
punishment of death, but Pepin again gave him his confidence, together with 
the title of duke, and a court retinue in the city of Mans. (A. D. 748.) 

Judgment, ability, and vigour, justice, mildness, and mercy, were the 



CORONATION OF PEPIN. 101 

qualities which gained for Pepin the good will of all the Frank population 
except a few leudes, who regretted the good old times when every man was 
his own master, his own legislator, and his own avenger. Though regarded 
as a sovereign in the country w^iich he ruled, he determined to establish for his 
children a secure throne, one able to withstand the storms which might break 
over it. He desired to fix the throne in his own family, not by the arbitrary 
exercise of the power which he possessed, but by the combined voices of the 
nobles, the clergy, and the people. Ecclesiastics regarded the authority of the 
Pope as the highest on earth, and the papal decrees proclaimed from the pul- 
})it, possessed great weight among the people. But the Saracens, the Lom- 
bards, and the Greek emperor had severely shaken the power of the pontiff, 
and Pepin \vas his only powerful supporter ; he, therefore, was not likely to 
refuse his assent to any proposition which might conduce to the happiness of 
his warlike neighbour. When, therefore, Boniface of Mayence, on behalf of 
Pepin, sounded his views respecting the designs of the latter, he returned an 
approbatory answer. Pepin, therefore, sent a public embassy to him, for the 
purpose of ascertaining whether, in the existing state of Christendom, the nomi- 
nal authority and the real power should be divided in France, and whether 
Pepin himself having the power, should not assume the rank and title of king, 
now held by the feeble Cliilderic III. The Pope decided that Pepin should 
be king, and directed Boniface to consecrate him to that high dignity. Chil- 
deric he directed to be shaven and placed in the convent of St. Omar. The 
directions of the Pope were laid before the council, a universal shout of appro- 
bation confirmed the change of dynasty, and Pepin was raised on a shield as 
the monarch of France. But it was thought proper to obey fully the directions 
of the pope, and preparations were immediately made for the inauguration and 
coronation of the new sovereign with religious rites and ceremonies. Boniface 
— Saint Boniface — officiated on the occasion, and anointed and consecrated the 
new king after the manner of the ancient kings of Israel, at the same time 
requiring from him an oath to govern his people righteously, and to protect 
the church. 

A multitude of difficulties almost immediately rose in the path of the new 
king. The Neustrians, the Aquitanians, the Bretons, and the Saxons, set the 
example to other tributary nations of refusing to acknowledge his sway. 
His brother Grippon, whose forfeited life he had twice spared, evinced his 
gratitude by proclaiming him a usurper, and joining his arms with those of the 
enemy. Pepin rose superior to every obstacle. The Saxons and Bretons were 
quickly humbled, and the cities of Nimes, Beziers, Agde, and Maguelonnc 
being placed in his power by the treachery of the Septimanian governor, gave 
him 'a foothold in that country, and laid open the whole Aquitanian frontier. 
Before entering Aquitaine, Pepin undertook another expedition, seemingly much 
more difficult. Pope Stephen, menaced by Astolphus, the King of the Lom- 
bards, came to implore tiie aid of Pepin in retaining possession of the holy 



102 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 

patrimony. Pepin promised speedy succour, and then availed himself of the 
favourable opportunity which the Pope's visit afforded, to obtain a solemn and 
impressive ratification of the title which he had assumed. Stephen consecrated, 
anointed, and crowned him anew in the presence of the nobles, the clergy, 
and the people; proclaimed him the true and only King of the i' ranks and 
eldest son of the church, and denounced excommunication and a terrible anathema 
against every man and his posterity, who should dare attempt to dethrone the 
reigning prince, or hinder the succession of his right heirs. The gratitude of 
Pepin for this most substantial favour, and the opportunity of extending his 
power over the Lombard States, afforded by the internal troubles of Italy, 
induced him to reject every proposition made by Astolphus, to keep him from 
meddling in his affairs. The Lombard king prevailed upon Carloman to take 
up his cause, and sent him to plead with his brother ; but Pepin affected to 
be displeased with the zeal displayed by the princely monk in executing his 
task, and commanded him to desist from his entreaties. He then prepared to 
begin the war, and in 755 he defeated the Lombard troops in a great battle, 
in the valley of Suza. Astolphus fled to Pavia, where he was closely besieged. 
The Franks spread terror and desolation oxer all the fertile country and 
carried into their camp immense quantities of gold and silver, jewels and orna- 
ments. Astolphus obtained a peace by resigning all the territory formerly 
comprised within the limits of the exarchate of Ravenna, which Pepin conferred 
in sovereignty, upon the Pope : thus laying the foundation of the temporal 
power of the Pontiffs. 

By a savage and desolating warfare, which inflicted such misery on the 
people, that they left their homes on the approach of the Franks, for a pre- 
carious life of freedom among the woods and rocks, Pepin succeeded in 
subduing and tranquillizing Aquitaine. This contest was the most obstinate of 
all in which he was engaged, and many of its occurrences have left dark 
spots upon the page of French history. On his way from Aquitaine to Paris, 
Pepin was seized with a fever. He caused himself to be carried to the tomb 
of St. Martin, at Tours, and afterwards to that of St. Denis, hoping that the 
saints would w^ork a miraculous cure for " the eldest son of the church." 
But his excessive superstition, which gave to the head of the church its 
temporal power, and its pretensions to the right of exalting and dethroning 
princes — of disposing of kingdoms and people, availed him nothing in his 
extremity. He died in August 768, and was buried at St. Denis, where 
a monument was erected to his memory, in the time of St. Louis. It bore 
the inscription : " Pepin, father of Charlemagne." 

Pepin was stout, vigorous, and hardy ; a noted warrior in times when 
cowards were unknown. He was so short in stature that he was called 
le Bref, (the short). This circumstance is the foundation of the following 
anecdote, which, besides proving the great muscular power and courage of the 
king, will give an idea of the popular sports of the day. At a public exhibition, 



PEPIN AND THE LION. 105 

a strong lion held by the throat and almost strangled a furious bull, Pepin 
proposed to the company that some of them should rescue the suffering animal. 
No one answered the appeal. Pepin thereupon rose from his seat, leaped into 
the arena, cut the throat of the lion, and with one stroke of his sword, severed 
the head from the body of the bull. Turning to the admiring spectators, he 
significantly observed, " David was a httle man, yet he slew Goliath." This 
feat is said to have been performed before the dethroned Childeric, and by 
presenting a remarkable contrast between the weakness of the king and the 
boldness and strength of the mayor, it may have contributed much towards 
securing to the latter the hearts of the fierce and warlike Franks. 

We have been thus particular with the history of the Franks during 
what has been called the barbarous period of European civilization, not only 
because their history comprises within itself a great portion of the records of 
other nations, but because it serves to give a correct picture of society during 
the times when strife and violence filled all lands. A somewhat particular 
and continued history of one country during the period from Clovis to Charle- 
magne, was necessary to give the reader an idea of the state of manners, 
politics, and morals in the middle ages. We have given a history of the 
actions of kings and nobles during the early part of this period, and have 
thereby shown them in their true characters, avenging and protecting not the 
innocent, but the guilty ; perjuring themselves continually ; glorying in war, 
however unjust ; sitting in judgment upon and filling the prisons with men 
who had committed no crime, and hesitating not to employ the dago-er 
of the assassin for the destruction of a foe. In the midst of this violence, 
injustice, and confusion, the Christian Church appears as a conservative powder. 
The leading clergy, being the most learned and accomplished men of the time, 
acquired the direction of education, of public works, and even of municipal 
administration to a certain extent;* and the temporal power which was at 
first thrust upon them, laid the foundation of those arrogant pretensions which 
marked a later period of history. 

We will now recur to the history of the Lombards, before taking a brief 
view of the progress of affairs in England fi-om the fall of the empire to the 
time of Charlemagne. That portion of the history of Spain, which has not 
been already narrated, will come under our notice in the succeeding chaptei-. 

The invasion of Italy by Childebert, so alarmed the Lombards that they 
put an end to the federation which had been established after the death of 
Clepho, and chose Autharis, the son of that ruler, to be king. Autharis 
gained several victories over the Franks, and formed the duchy of Eenevento 
out of a part of ancient Samniura, which he had conquered from the Emperor 
Maurice. When the second invasion of the Franks threatened the destruction 
of the Lombards, he prudently avoided a battle, and the dissensions of the 

* Guizot. 
Vol. II. 14 



106 



AFFAIRS OF LOMBARDY. 




FRANKS GIVING ARMS AND PRISONERS FOR FOOD, 



twenty chiefs, who headed it, produced intemperance, disease, and desertion 
among their soldiers, and unprofitably consumed their time and resources. 
Though they led back to France a multitude of captives driven like oxen 
before them, they not only sold them, but exchanged their booty and even 
their arms for food. 

The short but glorious reign of Autharis was ended by his death (A.. D, 590). 
The crown was then placed upon the brow of Agilulfe, who attempted to 
change the religion of the Lombards from the Arian heresy to the orthodox 
faith. Several of his dukes made this a pretext for rebellion, but he chastised 
them, and his son and successor, Adaluald, completed the change. The Arians 
became sufficiently powerful to raise another to the throne; but the rivals both 
died childless, and the Lombard assembly chose Rotharies to succeed them. 
Though he was an Arian, the wisdom of his laws gained for him the affection 
and esteem of all his subjects, thereby strengthening his hands for the war 
which he effectually waged against the imperial interest in Ltaly. During ten 
years after his death, confusion and bloodshed marked the history of his 
kingdom. At the end of that time the iron crown was placed upon the head 
of Grimoald (A. D. 662). Under the rule of this prince, the Lombards were 
involved in war with the Greek emperor, Constans, who appeared in Italy at 
the head of a powerful army. He laid siege to Benevento, but the garrison 
resisted so valiantly that he was forced to retreat. The Lombards followed 
him, overtook him on the march, and cut his army to pieces. Constans him- 
self fled to Sicily, where some of his domestics murdered him in a bath. 
(July 15th, A. D. 668.) His conqueror died in 672, universally lamented by 



DEATH OF BRUNEHAUT. 



107 




the Lombards, who were by his death pkinged into a new series of the most 
bloody but obscure revolutions. Luitprand was raised to the throne in 711, 
though against the wishes of the nobles. He succeeded, however, in winning 
their favour by his courage, prudence, and ='^*^ - - -^-^^^-^-^^^^^T^^^-;^'- - 
wisdom, and by his wise laws restored 
the prosperity of his people. Ambition 
prompted him to imitate the career of 
Charles Martel, who was then engaged 
in extending his sway over all France, and 
who was on terms of the strictest friend- 
ship with Luitprand. 

Leo, the Isaurian, at this time governed 
the Greek empire. He engaged in a hot 
dispute with the reigning pope, Gregory IH. 
concerning the worship of images, which he 
had caused to be removed from all churches 
within his dominions and destroyed. Gre- 
gory approved the use of the symbols, ap- 
plied the term Iconoclasts (image breakers) 
to the emperor and his partisans, and finally ^ j . .l„o uaktkl 

resorted to violence. While the Catholic 

portion of Italy was torn by factions, Luitprand, who w^as accused of Arian- 
ism, seized upon the last remnant of the imperial territory in the west, the 
Exarchate of Ravenna. He even threatened to besiege Rome itself, which 
was nominally comprised in the Exarchate, though really ruled by Gregory. 
Under these distressing circumstances, Gregory implored aid from the emperor ; 
but that dignitary considering the little real power he possessed in Italy to be 
not worth fighting for, suffered the combatants to settle their own dispute. 
Gregory then sent to Charles Martel, the friend of the Lombards, a most 
flattering and pressing appeal for succour. Charles, however, was unwilling 
to sever the ties of friendship which bound him to Luitprand, and he therefore 
merely offered his mediation. It was accepted, and the Lombard army with- 
drew from the gates of the Eternal City. 

Gregory, however, was dissatisfied with the result, and he determined to 
make a still more direct appeal to the vanity and ambition of the gallant 
Frank. He accordingly sent an embassy to him, wuth the keys of the tomb 
of St. Peter, and a part of the chains which the apostle had w'orn in main- 
taining the faith, as a present, and an oifer to recognize Charles as Consul of 
Rome, and Emperor of the West. This magnificent proposal aroused the 
ambition of the great mayor, and he despatched an embassy to Gregory with 
a flattering answer. But his death soon after, probably, prevented Charles 
from anticipating the career of his grandson, Charlemagne. Luitprand, also 
died in 743, leavins; his kino-dom to be afflicted with a series of civil wars. 



108 



AFFAIRS OF LOMBARDY. 




UUARLES MARTEL RECEIVING THE POPE'S PRESENTS. 



Astolphus, who carried the power of the Lombards to its greatest height, was 
chosen king, in 751. He took possession of Ravenna and its dependencies, 
changed it into a new dukedom, and then led his forces against Rome. As 
we have before seen, Pepin was called to interfere in the quarrel, he having 
been elected to the office of patrician or exarch, by the Romans, and being bound 
by his acceptance of that title, to maintain the integrity of the Roman terri- 
tory. He reannexed the territories of the exarchate which he recovered from 
the Lombards, to those which had remained in the hands of the Pope ; an act 
which the popes afterwards assumed to be the gift of a province, conquered 
by him as King of the Franks, and bestowed directly on the papal see. But 
the deeds of Charlemagne show " that the monarchs of the Franks looked upon 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIANS. 



109 



upon the whole transaction in a different light, and considered all the temporal 
and part even of the ecclesiastical power in the provinces which they had 
restored to Rome, as still vested in themselves in their quality of patrician or 
exarch."* Voltaire, taking the same view of the subject, observes that " it is 
very unlikely that a man of Pepin's disposition, who had dethroned his own 
sovereign, should march with an army into Italy for no other purpose than to 
make presents." 

Having taken from the Lombards the territory formerly comprised within 
the exarchate, and forced Astolphus to become tributary to him, Pepin returned 
to France. Astolphus was soon after killed by being thrown, with his horse, 
ag-ainst a tree while huntinuf. 




DEATH OF ASTOLPHUS, 



The remainder of the history of the Lombards is soon told. The kingdom 
was distracted after the death of Astolphus by a disputed succession, which 
was finally ended by the accession of Desiderius or Didier, to the throne, 
under the auspices of the pope.f (A. D. 756.) But the jealousy of the pontiff 
afterwards threatening his power, he tried to secure himself by forming an 
alliance with the Frank kings, Charles and Carloraan. He gave to each of 
them one of his daughters in marriage ; but Charles divorced his wife, and 
Desiderius compromised his safety by indulging his desire for vengeance. He 
endeavoured to persuade the pope Adrian to anoint Carloman's children Kings 
of France, but the pontiff depended too much upon the support of Charlemagne 
to comply with his wishes. He, therefore, invaded the papal dominions, and 



* James's History of Charlemagne. 



t Taylor. 



110 AFFAIRS OF BRITAIN. 

Adrian, too feeble to support a war, threw himself upon the kindness of Char- 
lemagne. The Frank sovereign crossed the Alps captured Pavia, and easily 
put an end to the Lombard rule. Desiderius was sent from Italy into France, 
and the iron crown of Lombardy was transferred to the brows of the great 
conqueror. 

When the barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire compelled the emperors 
to abandon their frontier provinces, the pusillanimous Britons remained exposed to 
the incursions of the Picts and Scots. Instead of uniting against the common 
enemies, the chiefs and princes spent their resources in contests for the supre- 
macy, and in theological controversies. At length Vortigern, a British prince, 
resolved on the fatal expedient of inviting the Saxons to come from Germany 
to their aid. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the Germans was 
their passion for maritime enterprise. They ploughed the waves and faced the 
storm in well-rigged ships, and had gradually combined piracy with trade as 
the luxury introduced by the Romans, enriched and enfeebled the inhabitants 
of Gaul and Britain. Three divisions of them are made by historians : the 
Jutes, of the Cimbric peninsula or Jutland ; the Angles, of Jutland and Holstein ; 
and the Saxons, who dwelt thence to the Rhine.* Vortigern applied to Hengist 
and Horsa, two brothers, chiefs of the Jutes, who claimed to be descended 
from Woden, the tutelary god of their nation. They readily accepted the 
invitation of Vortigern, came to his aid with three ships, carrying sixteen 
hundred men, and were soon after followed by others of their countrymen. Their 
arms being joined with those of the Britons, they defeated the invaders. The 
ease with which this victory was obtained, suggested to the Saxons the thought 
that they could easily dispossess a nation unable to resist such feeble invaders. 
They determined to attempt it, and commenced a war for the country, which 
raged for one hundred and fifty years. New swarms of invaders poured into 
the island from time to time, being chiefly composed of Saxons, and of 
Angles, a similar barbarous tribe. The mountains of Wales and Cornwall 
finally received the miserable remnant of the Britons, and the southern portion 
of the island was divided into seven Saxon kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy. 
From the commencement of the seventh till the end of the eighth century 
after Christ, the history of the Heptarchy presents a continued and confused 
succession of petty wars, totally devoid of interest. Offn, King of Mercia, is 
the only one of the long list of kings whose memory deserves to be rescued 
from the oblivion into which the names of his cotemporaries have been cast. 
Such was his power, and so wide-spread his reputation, that Charlemagne 
sought and cultivated his friendship, and desired him to send to his court the 
celebrated Alcuin. 

When Egbert ascended the throne of Wessex, as the kingdom of the West 
Saxons was called, the dominion of Mercia was extended over a great part 

* Keiglitley's England. 



AFFAIRS OF BRITAIN. 



Ill 



of the Heptarchy. (A. D. 800.) Egbert, however, was the sole descendant of 
those princes who first subdued Britain, and he enhanced his authority by 
claiming a pedigree from Woden. The Mercians attacked him, but were 
defeated. Kent, Essex, Sussex, and East Anglia became tributary to him, 
and in two battles he gained possession of Mercia. The people of Northum- 
berland gladly placed themselves under his rule, and he thus consolidated the 
Heptarchy into one kingdom, which received the name of England, from the 
appellation of the Angles, who four hundred years before had come to conquer 
the island. This union of the Saxon Heptarchy took place (A. D. 827). 

The Britons had been instructed in the Christian religion while under the 
Roman dominion. The Saxons, on invading the island, extended their enmity 
against the inhabitants to a hatred of their worship, and thus the true faith 
became almost extirpated. But in 597, the missionary, St. Augustine, arrived 
in the kingdom of Kent, then the most powerful kingdom of the Heptarchy. 
Ethelbert, the king, had married a Christian princess, Bertha, the daughter of 
Caribert of France, who, by her exalted character, obtained a great influence 
over the minds of the king and his principal chiefs. Becoming acquainted with 
her popularity, Pope Gregory the Great intrusted his qualified legate, Augus- 
tine, with the task of converting the people of Kent to the doctrines of the 
true church. By his austere manners and the penances to w^hich he subjected 
himself, joined to the eloquence and abihty with w^hich he expounded the 
doctrines of his religion, he soon acquired great influence over the minds of the 
simple Saxons. The king and most of his subjects, were converted to the 
Christian faith, and St. Augustine became the first archbishop of Canterbury. 
The whole island soon followed the example of the principal province, the 
hearts and minds of the people began to be improved, and civilization and 
religion advanced hand in hand. 





MOHAMME D. 



CHAPTER III. 



RABIA was not remarkable in the annals 
of the world previous to the sixth cen- 
tury. The Arabs, however, had al- 
ready signalized themselves by incur- 
sions into the Eastern empire, when 
Kj Mohammed was born in the year 580, 
at Mecca. He was of the tribe of the 
Koreishites, who pretended to derive 
their origin from Koreish, the most -illus- 
trious of the twelve sons of Ishmael. 
His grandfather was the son of Hashem, 
a merchant prince, who generously relieved the citizens of Mecca, during a 
famine, with supplies obtained by commerce. Abdol Motalleb, the grandfather 
of Mohammed, was also famed in the annals of Mecca for his courage, which 
once saved the city from capture at the hands of Abrahah, the general of the 
Kings of Abyssinia. The holy city was invested by a train of elephants and 




MOHAMMED. 113 

an army of Africans. A treaty was proposed, and in the first audience, the 
grandfather of Mohammed, who was the hereditary guardian of the Caaba or 
temple, demanded the restitution of his cattle. " Why," said Abrahah, " do 
you not rather implore my clemency in fiivour of your temple which I have 
threatened to destroy ?" " Because," replied the intrepid chief, " the cattle 
are mine ; the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend their house 
from injury and sacrilege." The want of provisions or the valour of the 
Koreish, compelled them to a disgraceful retreat ; the tale of their discomfiture 
has been adorned with a miraculous flight of bii'ds, who showeied down stones 
on the heads of the infidels, and the deliverance was long commemorated by 
the era of the elephants* 

Mohammed lost his parents at an early age, and was deprived of his 
patrimony by the rapacity of his relatives. Five camels and an Ethiopian 
maid-servant were all that remained to him ; but the most respectable of his 
uncles, Abu-Taleb, guided and protected his youth. At the age of twenty-five 
he entered into the service of a wealthy merchant's widow, who carried on a 
considerable trade with Syria, and who entrusted him with the transaction of 
her business, and the guidance of her camels across the desert. The faithful 
manner in which he discharged his duties gave so much satisfaction to Kadijah, 
his mistress, that she gave him her hand and fortune. The leisure of opulence 
permitting him to indulge in all the extravagancies of an exalted imagination, 
he conceived the hardy idea of uniting the Arabs under one faith and one 
authority. He withdrew from the world during one month in each year, 
and passed that time in a cave, near Mecca, where, in solitude, he formed 
the meditated plan. It will not comport with the limits of our work to 
give an account of the precepts of Mohammed, of the manner in which he 
states them to have been communicated to him, or to state how they were set 
aside, modified or enlarged as the spread of his doctrines disclosed new views 
to his ambitious eyes. The curious are referred for a summary of these things 
to the eloquent pages of Gibbon. It is our part to trace the progress of his 
power and the career of conquest pursued by his enthusiastic successors, the 
Arabian caliphs. 

Except his wife and slaves, few converts to his faith were made during 
the first years of his pretended mission. The efforts which he made to gain 
disciples drew on him the enmity of the Koreish, the guardians of the temple 
of Mecca, who determined to put him to death. His uncle, Abu-Taleb, sup- 
ported him in opposition to the designs of his kinsmen ; but his death finally 
exposed Mohammed to their malice at the very time when the loss of his 
faithful Kadijah deprived him of his domestic comforts. Fearful that by 
imprisoning Mohammed, they would but increase the number of his followers, 
the Koreish agreed that he should be assassinated. Eut Mohammed was warned 

* Gibbon. 
Vol.. II. 15 



114 RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 

of their intentions, and contrived to escape with a companion from his house 
by night, while his cousin AU deceived the assassins who watched at the 
door, by reposing on the bed, covered by the green vestment of the apostle. 
For three days, the fugitives were hid in a cave, a league from Mecca, where 
they received information and food from the daughter of the prophet's friend. 
When the pursuit w^as ended, they mounted camels and set out for Medina, 
where they arrived in safety. The inhabitants of Medina had hitherto been 
divided between two principal tribes, the Charegites and the Awsites ; besides 
these, there were two tribes of Jews, humble allies, but important on account 
of the taste for science and religion, which they had introduced into the city. 

While Mohammed had taught in the Caaba in Mecca, some of the princi- 
pal citizens of Medina, coming there on a pilgrimage, had become converts to 
his doctrines. On their return home they had diffused their i^Hth, and by 
their deputies they formed an alliance with the exiled prophet. In the first 
conference with Mohammed, ten Charegites and two Awsites, united in 
faith and love, protested, in the name of their wives, their children, and 
their absent brethren, that they would forever profess the creed and ob- 
serve the precepts of the Koran, the exposition of the laws and religious 
doctrines of Mohammedanism. In the second interview was formed a political 
association, the foundation of the Saracenic power. Seventy-three men and 
two women of Medina, held a solemn conference with Mohammed and his 
disciples, and pledged themselves to each other with an oath of mutual fidelity : 
they promising, should the prophet be banished from Mecca, to defend him as 
they would their children, w^hile Mohammed engaged himself to be a friend 
to their friends, and a foe to their foes, and not to abandon them should the 
people of Mecca summon him to return to that city. Paradise was the reward 
promised by the grateful prophet to those who might be killed in his service.* 
These interviews had occurred before the flight of Mohammed from Mecca, 
and therefore, when he reached Medina, he was received with joy by many 
of the noblest citizens, whose example and influence induced the whole of the 
inhabitants to embrace with ardour the fiiith and cause of the new sect. 
Mohammed was conducted in triumph through the city, mounted on a camel, 
his head shaded by an umbrella, and a green turban unfurled before him for a 
standard. He now assumed the offices of king and priest, authorizing by his 
spiritual decrees, the mandates which he issued as a temporal ruler. He forbade 
the use of wine and enjoined that of the bath, appointed particular hours for 
prayer, and expounded some part of the Koran daily in the mosque which he 
himself built in Medina. 

Thus the disgraceful flight from Mecca became the era of his glory and 
the foundation of his empire. Under the name of the Hegira or fight, the 
Mussulmans use it to mark the commencement of the reign of Mohammed, and 

* Gibbon. 



ENTHUSIASM OF THE MOSLEMS. 117 

the era from which they date their chronology, each year containing twelve 
moons or 354 daj-s, thus beginning eleven days sooner than the preceding one. 
After reigning six years at Medina, Mohammed assumed a fierce and 
sanguinary tone. He promulgated the maxim that the faith was to be spread 
by the sword, and when victory smiled on his banners in the first military 
encounters, his political horizon became wider: and he aspired to triumphs of 
which at his outset he could not even have dreamed. He exalted the enthu- 
siasm of his followers by the assurance that a night spent on guard was of 
more value in the sight of God than sixty years passed in prayer; flight on 
the day of conflict rendered valueless all former good actions ; for the martyrs, 
those who fought for the extension of the faith, who fell on the field of battle, 
were reserved the highest joys of paradise, such a paradise as exceeded even 
all the conceptions of the glowing imaginations of the Arabs. Attila, when he 
addressed his brave warriors on the field of Chalons, assured them that " the 
soldier protected by heaven was safe and invulnerable amid the darts of the 
enemy, but that the unerring fates would strike their victims in the very 
bosom of inglorious peace." Similar to this was the doctrine promulgated by 
the prophet; and as Attila himself threw the first javelin in the battle, so 
Mohammed fought in person at the head of his troops. His followers advanced 
to battle with a fearless confidence, with a picture of the world to come 
impressed in the strongest manner upon their imaginations ; with such a heaven 
in view, they smiled at death and saw life depart with exultation.* 

In the first battle, which was fought against his old enemies the Koreish, 
he opposed but three hundred and thirteen warriors against a well-armed band 
of one hundred horse and eight hundred and fifty foot. Yet he demanded 
three thousand angels from heaven, and when his little army wavered in the 
action, he loudly exclaimed, "Let their faces be covered with confusion." 
The troops on both sides heard his voice, and imagined that the heavenly aid 
which he had demanded was come to his assistance. The Koreish fled, 
seventy of them were slain and seventy taken prisoners. The holy robber, 
for the object of the expedition was the plunder of a caravan belonging to the 
Koreish, received as his share of the prize, twenty thousand drachms. This 
victory which appeared a miracle in the eyes of his followers, persuaded them 
that God fought for them as they fought for his glory. From the first victory, 
they joined with the martial apostle in presaging the conquest of the world.f 
Abou Sophian, the leader of the enemy, collected an array to revenge his 
defeat, and Mohammed nothing loath for the encounter, marched against him. 
But his former victory had rendered his soldiers presumptuous, and they were 
defeated in consequence of commencing a search for plunder as soon as they 
had broken the line of the enemy. In this battle, the prophet himself was 
wounded in the face with a javelin and two of his teeth were shattered with 
a stone. 

* Keightk-y— Gibbon. f Voltuire. 



118 



RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 



In the followinc; year the Koreish advanced against Medina with a pow- 
erful host of nations ; but the holy warrior, grown prudent, declined a general 
eno-agement. During twenty days hostilities were continued ; a storm of wind^ 
rain, and hail then overturned the tents of the nations ; they engaged in private 
quarrels, and the Koreish were deserted by their allies. Unable to contend 
against the fortunate exile, they retired to Mecca to watch his future career. 
Mohammed marched against the Jews of Chaibar, who were compelled to submit 
to his yoke, in punishment for the assistance which they had afforded to the 
enemy at the siege of Medina. He then menaced the Koreishites in Mecca ; 
but gave over the idea of taking the city by force, made a truce with his 
enemy for ten years, and begged of them the right to visit the Caaba. The 
Koreish evacuated the city ; the army of Mohammed entered and performed 
their pilgrimage, and retired on the fourth day. The devotion of the pilgrims 
awed while it charmed the idolaters; they renounced their former faith, and 






ENCAMPMENT OF ARiBS. 



increased the power of the apostle. Ten thousand soldiers were assembled for 
the conquest of Mecca, the idolaters being now the weaker party were con- 
victed of violating the truce; and the holy city was surrendered by Abou 
Sophian, who embraced the creed of his enemy that " there is but one God, 
and Mohammed is his prophet." With the submission of the capital, the 
successful impostor received that of Arabia, (A. D. 629.) 

The ambition of Mohammed was not confined to the limits of Arabia. 
Dazzled by his prosperity he carried his insolence so far as to summon the 



MOHAMMED. 119 

most powerful kings to embrace his new religion. Chosroes, the Persian mon- 
arch, was, at the time when he received the mandate of the prophet, at the 
height of a career of conquest. Such a demand from an unknown individual 
in an obscure city, insulted his pride and excited his indignation. He tore the 
letter in pieces and flung the fragments to the winds. When this was told 
to Mohammed, he exclaimed in the spirit of prophecy, " thus will God rend 
the kingdom of Chosroes." The Roman emperor, Heraclius and the prophet, 
however, were for a time on good terms ; but the boldness of the latter 
increasing with his success, he took advantage of the murder of an envoy, to 
attack the soldiers of the empire, in the province of Palestine. Three thousand 
men were all that were selected for this daring enterprise ; yet it is asserted 
that they gained a victory over thirty thousand men at an unknown spot 
called Muta. On this occasion the prophet had entrusted the standard to Zeid, 
and arranged that Jaafar and Abdallah should succeed if the first should fall. 
Zeid died bravely in the foremost ranks : Jaafar then took the standard. His 
right hand w-as cut off; he then took it in his left; that also was severed 
from his body, yet he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps until 
he expired with a hundred wounds. Abdallah stepped into his place. " Advance," 
said he to his soldiers, " advance with confidence ; either victory or paradise 
is our own." The lance of a Roman decided the alternative ; but Caled came to 
rescue the fallen standard. Nine swords were broken in his hand, and his 
valour withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. 

The death of the prophet occurred in the eleventh year of the Hegira, 
(A. D. 632,) in his house in Medina. He expired on a carpet spread on the 
floor, with his head resting in the lap of his favourite wife, Ayesha. A grave 
was dug on the very spot, in which he was piously interred by his nearest 
kinsman. A simple monument was erected on the spot, and over this tomb 
one of the caHphs built a temple, still the resort of the pilgrims of the Mus- 
sulman faith. He neglected to name a successor ; and the assembly of the 
sheiks conferred the power upon Abubeker, to the detriment of Ali, who was 
his cousin, the most devoted of his followers and his son-in-law. Abubeker 
assumed the title of caliph or vicar, and caused the different writings of the 
prophet to be collected into one book called the Koran {readings). The reli- 
gion given by Mohammed was named Islam, {resignation,^ whence those w^ho 
profess it are called Moslems by the Arabs, and Mussulmans by the Persians. 

Mohammed was distinguished for the beauty of his person, and his pre- 
possessing appearance and address. His majestic aspect, his commanding 
presence, his gracious smile, his flowing beard, in short, every outward gift 
excited involuntary applause. Ceremoniously polite, he was alike distinguished 
for his respectful attention to the rich, and his condescension and affability 
toward the poor. The frankness of his manner concealed the artifice of his 
views ; and his habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship or 
universal benevolence. His memory w^as capacious and retentive, his wit easy 



120 RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 

and social, his imagination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive, his 
thought and action courageous. Possessed of no ordinary powers of eloquence, he 
was an illiterate barbarian ; his youth had never been instructed in the arts of 
reading and writing, and though the common ignorance exempted him from 
shame, he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence and deprived of those 
faithful mirrors which reflect to our mind the minds of sases and heroes.* He 
appears to have been endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition. So 
soon as marriage had raised him above the pressure of want, he avoided the 
paths of ambition and avarice, and till the age of forty, he lived with inno- 
cence, and would have died without a name. " It is not our intention to 
become the panegyrist of the prophet," says a well-known author,t " but truth 
compels us to acknowledge that he possessed many great and noble qualities, 
and we might in charity believe, that born as he was in the midst of idolatry, 
with the whole world lying in darkness around him; the faith of the Persian 
Zoroaster, by far the purest system of unrevealed religion, sunk and degraded ; 
the Mosaic law become a burdensome and puerile superstition, and even Chris- 
tianity itself nearly lost beneath the weight of folse philosophy and abject 
idolatry — he may have been sincere in the first enunciation of the sublime 
sentence on wdiich his religion rests, there is no God but God." The his- 
torian of the Roman empire, pursuing the same train of thought, remarks " the 
unity of God is an idea most congenial to nature and reason ; and a slight 
conversation with the Jews and Christians, would teach him to despise the 
idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart the 
doctrine of salvation ; to rescue his country from sin and error. The energy 
of a mind incessantly bent on the same object, would convert a general obli- 
gation into a particular call ; the warm suggestions of the understanding or 
the fancy, would be felt as the inspirations of heaven ; the labour of thought 
would expire in rapture and vision; and the inward sensation, the invisible 
monitor, would be described with the form and attributes of an anoel of God. 
From enthusiasm to imposture, the step is perilous and slippery ; the dsemon 
of Socrates affords a memorable instance how a wise man may deceive him- 
self, how a good man may deceive others, how the conscience may slumber 
in a mixed and middle state between self-illusion and voluntary fraud." Such 
is the best apology for the character of Mohammed that could be devised by 
a writer w'ho seems willing to exalt any other religion at the expense of 
Christianity. When we consider, however, the sensual character of Moham- 
med's heaven, and the fact that his follow'ers were made to believe, that they 
would instantly enter upon the enjoyment of it, if they should fall in battle 
against the unbelievers, we must admit that the principal distinction of Moham- 
med is, his having been the inventor of the most terrible and destructive form 
of fanaticism that the world has ever witnessed. 

* Gibbfui. t Keightley. 



DESIGNS AGAINST PERSIA. 



121 




MOHAMMED. 



It will be well before reciting the 
progress of Islamism under the successors 
of Mohammed, to notice the progress of 
events in the east since the death of Jus- 
tinian. Foreio-n disgrace and internal 
misery marked the reign of Justin II., 
the nephew and successor of that monarch. 
At his death in 578, Justin bequeathed 
the empire to Tiberius, whose conduct 
proved the wisdom of the choice. Justin 
had refused to make an alliance with 
the Avars, but had entered into a league 
against Persia with the Khan of the 
Turks. War therefore broke out between 
him and Chosroes ; but the deaths of the 
two emperors delayed hostilities for a little 
while. Tiberius, however, was obliged 
to defend his dominions against both the 

Avars and the Persians. Whilst he was occupied in repelling the Avars from 
Dacia, his generals, Maurice and Justinian gained the victories of Melitene 
and Constantine over the latter. The whole hopes of the empire depended 
upon the daughter of Tiberius, who was received in marriage by Maurice as 
a reward for his services. Tiberius died four years after his accession to the 
throne and Maurice assumed the Imperial dignity. Less fortunate as an em- 
peror than as a general, he was unable to keep the advantage which his arms 
had acquired. The satrap, Bahram, after defeating the Turks, was on the 
point of penetrating into Asia Minor, when he was conquered by the Romans. 
He then returned to Persia, and organized a rebellion ; Ilormuz, the son of 
the great Chosroes, was then deposed and slain, and his son Chosroes II. was 
forced to take refuge in the territory of his father's enemy. 

Maurice, though avaricious, was generous. He levied a powerful army, 
and placed it under the command of Narses, who was himself of Persian 
descent, and who soon succeeded in driving the usurper beyond the Oxus, and 
re-establishing Chosroes on the throne of his ancestors. The grateful prince 
made a treaty of close alliance with the emperor, to whom he restored all the 
conquests of Bahram. The incur^ons of the Avars now occupied the attention 
of Maurice , but the incapacity of his generals caused his troops to mutiny, 
and they marched for the capital under the direction of a centurion, named 
Phocas. A faction, which the avarice of the emperor had raised up in the 
city, drove him from Constantinople and proclaimed Phocas emperor. But the 
sudden elevation of the centurion proved his destruction. He became a tyrant 
and, by putting to death the whole imperial family, commenced a career which 
earned for him the hatred and contempt of the people. Pope Gregory, how- 
VoL. II. 16 



122 RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER, 

ever, sanctioned liis usurpation, and was rewarded for his adulation with the 
title of Universal Bishop. The people, however, felt too keenly the loss of 
the virtuous Maurice to agree with the pope in flattering his wicked successor ; 
they therefore invited Heraclius, the son-in-law of Phocas, to avenge the 
murder of the late emperor. He sailed to Constantinople and the people bound 
and delivered to him their tyrannical ruler. When Heraclius reproached him 
with his vices, Phocas simply replied, " Wilt thou govern better ?" He was 
put to death and his son-in-law ascended his throne. (A. D. 610.) 

Meanwhile, another avenger of the death of Maurice had appeared in the 
person of Chosroes II. Everywhere the Persian monarch found allies in those 
whom the sovereigns and prelates of Byzantium had oppressed ; and his con- 
quests spread with alarming rapidity. Heraclius had scarcely ascended the 
throne when he heard of the fall of Antioch. (A. D. 614.) Damas and Jeru- 
salem were also captured and all of them committed to the flames. Chosroes 
announced his intention of restoring the integrity of the Persian empire, and 
of substituting the religion of the worshippers of fire for that of the followers 
of Christ. The fugitives from Palestine sought refuge in Egypt, where they 
were kindly received by the Bishop of Alexandria. But the valley of the 
Nile, which had been sunk in profound peace since the days of Diocletian, 
now again resounded with the din of battle. The warlike monarch invaded 
the land of Egypt, conquered it, and reannexed it to the Persian empire. 
(A. D. 661.) Asia Minor made no better resistance, and the Avars, the Per- 
sians' allies, advanced to the very walls of Constantinople. 

Heraclius, reduced to his capital and a few maritime provinces, was 
disposed to transport the seat of government to Carthage ; but the patriarch 
opposed this dishonourable measure, and inspired the emperor with feelings 
more worthy of his position. A message sent by Chosroes, when he scornfully 
refused to listen to the entreaties of the Roman ambassadors for pardon and peace, 
aroused the energies of the emperor. When Heraclius was brought in chains 
to liis footstool, or had abjured Christianity and embraced the Magian religion, 
then would Chosroes grant peace. Twelve years had the subjects of Heraclius 
been oppressed by their enemies and he had interposed no aid or protection ; 
now he courageously resolved to take the field, and entered on a career as active 
and glorious as his former conduct had been supine and disgraceful. He boldly 
transferred the theatre of war beyond the Taurus, and signalized his first 
campaign by a victory at Issus, where Alexander had defeated Darius. Land- 
ing his army at Trebizonde in the following year, he entered into a close 
alliance with the Khozar Turks ; and the Persian monarch found his attention 
wholly occupied with the defence of his own frontier. The Avars before 
Constantinople were cut to pieces in 626, and Heraclius, reinforced by forty 
thousand Khozars, reconquered all his lost territory. His troops overran the 
greater part of Persia, defeated the Asiatics wherever they met them, destroyed 
all Chosroes's splendid palaces, and carried ofl" his hoarded treasures. Yet he 



HERACLIUS. 123 

made no effort to stop the desolation, and even refused the terms of peace 
which were offered to him by the humanity of Herachus. His subjects regarded 
him as the author of their calamities, conspired against him, and elevated his 
son Schiroueh or Siroes, to the throne. This unnatural prince, pretending that 
he was compelled by the clamours and importunities of his people and nobles, 
cast the unfortunate monarch into a dungeon and put him to death. He then 
concluded a peace with Heraclius, which ended the long contention between the 
two empires. The kingdom of Persia exhausted by the late sanguinary contest, 
was left to perish under the accumulated evils of a dreadful famine, the 
disputes of proud and luxurious nobles, a succession of weak sovereigns, and 
the attacks of the enthusiastic Saracens. Thus was the prophecy of Moham- 
med accomplished. 

In the popular estimation, Heraclius had far exceeded all the great leaders 
who had appeared before him ; Moses, Alexander, and Hercules were totally 
eclipsed by his superior merit. Yet feebleness was the most prominent trait 
of his character. The most valuable portion of the Persian spoils had been 
expended in paying the expenses of the war or lost by a storm in the Euxine, 
and the emperor found his conscience greatly oppressed by the thought that he 
was bound to repay to the clergy the moneys which he had received 
from them for purposes of general defence. Knowing the weakness of their 
royal debtor, the priests were inexorable ; a perpetual fund was required to 
satisfy them ; and the unfortunate inhabitants of the provinces, who had been 
plundered by the arms and the avarice of the enemy, were again impoverished 
by the lawful taxes of their own rulers. The loss by the sword, of two hundred 
thousand soldiers, was of less fatal importance than the decay of the arts and 
agriculture during the war ; and though a victorious army had been summoned 
round the standard of Heraclius, the unnatural effort appears to have exhausted 
rather than exercised their strength. While the emperor was engaged in 
celebrating useless triumphs in Jerusalem or Constantinople, the Saracens 
attacked and pillaged an obscure town on the confines of Syria, and cut to 
pieces a body of troops advanced to its relief. These robbers were the apos- 
tles of Mohammed ; their fanatic valour had emerged from the desert ; and in 
the last eight years of his reign, Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provin- 
ces which he had rescued from the Persians. 

The first act of Abubeker, after superintending the sepulture of his master, 
was the destruction of a new religion, which was promulgated by an impostor 
named Moseilama. Caled, who had rescued the fillen standard at the battle 
of Muta, and who, for his gallantry on that field, had received the surname of 
"The sword of God," succeeded in suppressing the new faith by exterminating 
Moseilama and all his followers. 

The deplorable weakness of the Persian and Byzantine empires favoured 
the designs of Abubeker, who needed constant employment for the military 
spirit which had been awakened in the minds of the Arabs by the teachings 



124 RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 

of the prophet. Osama, the son of Zeid, ravaged Syria while Caled subdued 
the province of Irak, anciently Babylonia. The army assembled for the con- 
quest of Syria was the most numerous that had been hitherto raised by the 
Saracens. A detachment, sent by Heraclius to meet it, was cut to pieces ; 
while a Moslem division, under Abu Obeidah, was defeated by the imperialists 
at Gaza. Caled, however, took the command, and succeeded in making himself 
master of Bosra. At length he laid siege to Damascus ; a city which, according 
to tradition, Mohammed had declared to be the earthly paradise, designed for 
the inheritance of true believers. 

Caled, the sword of God, the scourge of the infidels, related this tradition 
to his followers with all his fiery eloquence, and their ardour for the siege 
was raised to a pitch of frenzy. A Roman army of one hundred thousand 
men was sent to relieve the threatened city ; but three several times it was 
defeated ; in the last engagement with the loss of half its numbers. Damascus 
consequently fell, on the very day that the aged Abubeker expired. (A. D. 634.) 
The character of the first caliph w^as remarkable for generosity and moderation ; 
he did not reserve for himself any portion of the vast wealth acquired by his 
victorious armies, but distributed his share to his soldiers and to the poor. He 
was always easy of access ; no petitioner for mercy or claimant of justice went 
unheard from his presence ; both by precept and example he laboured to retain 
the republican simplicity so remarkable in the early history of the Saracens ; 
and though the partisans of Ah regard him as a usurper, they still reverence 
his memory on account of his moderation and his virtue.* 

The claims of Ali to the office of caliph were now again set aside in 
favor of another, the army unanimously choosing Omar as fittest to succeed 
the venerable Abubeker. Under this caliph the conquest of Persia was effected. 
He it was into whose hands fell the great standard of Persia, the ever me- 
morable blacksmith's apron. It had grown by tlie liberality of the Persian 
monarchs, to be twenty-two feet in length and fifteen in breadth, and was 
enriched W'ith jewels of the highest value. Omar caused it to be divided 
for distribution. In the battle in which it was captured, and which lasted 
several days, the Arabs lost but three thousand men, whilst the Persian 
army was almost totally annihilated. A similar result attended the battle of 
Nahavend, which decided the fiite of the country. But Yezdegerd, the last 
of the Sassanidee, proved himself worthy of a line of ancestors among wiiose 
names are those of Ardesheer, Sapor, and Chosroes. He maintained an unyield- 
ing resistance for ten years, when he was slain by a miller, with w^hom he 
had sought refuge, (A. D. 651), thus ingloriously ending the fortunes of a 
house which had ruled Persia for four hundred and fifty years. 

It would be tiresome to recoimt all flie advantages gained by these 
indomitable warriors. We pass to the year 643, when the caliph Omar was 

* Taylor. 



DEATH OF OTHMAN. 



125 



assassinated by a slave. During his reign of ten years and a half, Syria, 
Chaldeea, Persia, and Egypt were completely subdued ; thirty-six thousand 
cities, towns, and castles had been taken ; four thousand Christian churches and 
fire and idol temples had been destroyed ; and fourteen hundred mosques had 
been erected in which the faithful might perform their devotions. The worth 
and dignity of Omar were such that Ali himself testified his sense of them by 
yielding his claims to him, and retiring to a Hfe of privacy and prayer. 
Omar also reposed great confidence in Ali, and lost no opportunity of consoling 
him under his disappointment by respectful attentions. At his death, he refused 
to determine whether his own son or AU should succeed him ; but left it to 
the decision of six electors, chosen fiom the most respectable of the Mussulmans. 
Had Ali deigned to promise a servile conformity to the Koran, the tradi- 
tions and the usages of the two preceding caliphs, he might have obtained the 
office ; but his lofty spirit could not bow to such indignity, and the choice fell 
upon Othman. The feeble temper and advanced age of this caliph were 




MURDER or OTHMAN. 



incompetent to the support of the government, and he quickly lost the esteem 
and confidence of the Moslems. The Egyptian army revolted and besieged 
him in Medina, and though their anger was momentarily appeased by his con- 
cessions, they retraced their steps and murdered him in his palace, as he sat 



126 RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 

with the Koran in his lap, expecting the approach of death. During his reign, 
the Saracens had continued to gratify their thirst for conquest, Moawiyah the 
governor of Syria subdued the island of Cyprus, (A.. D. 647,) while Armenia 
and Nubia fell before the armies of Syria and Egypt. Rhodes too, was cap- 
tured by Moawiyah; its celebrated Colossus was thrown down, broken in 
pieces, and sold to a Jew, who loaded nine hundred camels with the metal of 
which it was composed. 

The death of Othman was followed by a tumultuous anarchy, which was 
ended after five days by the election of Ali to the empire, 655. But though 
the brother of Ayesha had marched at the head of the murderers of Othman, 
and the widow of the prophet had probably been an accessary to his death, 
she now affected to believe that Ali had promoted the murder of his aged 
predecessor, whom she determined to avenge. Two Arabian chiefs, Telha and 
Zobeir, having failed to procure the government of Assyria, which they had 
conquered, raised the standard of revolt. Ayesha joined them, determined to 
prosecute to the last moment of her life, her enmity toward the husband and 
children of her stepdaughter. With greatly superior numbers she encountered 
the army of Ali, under the walls of Bassora. Telha and Zobeir were slain 
in the attack ; the guard of Ayesha, was destroyed, and the cage in which she 
sat was stuck full of javelins and darts : yet she escaped unhurt from the 
dangers of the field, heard unmoved the reproaches of Ali, and was dismissed 
to her proper station, the tomb of her husband. AH, with his usual generosity, 
assigned to the widow of his beloved prophet a large pension. 

The attention of the sovereign was next directed to Syria, where Moa- 
wiyah had assumed the title of caliph. One hundred and ten days were 
consumed in a desultory war, in which the superior valour and humanity of 
the lawful caliph were brilliantly i|||^ifested. He challenged his adversary to a 
personal conflict, but it was declined; and, at length, Moawiyah finding the 
number of his supporters rapidly decreasing, affixed a Koran to the top of a 
pike, and oflfered to settle all disputes by its authority. All's soldiers, having 
a high respect for the reputed sanctity of their enemy, forced their commander 
to consent to a truce. In the negotiations, Amrou distinguished himself as the 
friend of Moawiyah, and contrived to have him chosen caliph, the signal for 
renewing the war. Three Charegites, discoursing of affairs in the temple of 
Mecca, concluded that neither of the prominent Moslems should have the 
authority of sovereign, because they all injured the cause of religion and 
brought distress upon the faithful by their dissensions. They therefore deter- 
mined to assassinate Amrou, Moawiyah, and Ali on the same day. The plot 
proved fatal only to the virtuous Ali. The wound which he received was 
mortal ; that given to Moawiyah did not prove fatal, and the assassin who had 
undertaken the murder of Amrou, mistook the person of the prince, and 
stabbed the deputy, who occupied his seat. (A. D. 661.) 

Ali was sixty-three years old at the time of his death. Though he was 



OMMIYADE DYNASTY. 



127 







the most amiable of the caliphs, he was inferior in statesmanship to his prede- 
cessors; the quahties which rendered him beloved in private life proving fatal 
to him in an age of convulsion and civil warfare. His hereditary claim and 
lofty spirit were offensive to the aristocracy of the elders, who desired by a 
free and frequent election, to bestow and ^ume the sceptre. The friends of 
Ali censured him for having neglected to mmve his interests by declaring his 
rights, as well before the death of the prophet as during the contests for the 
succession. They also charged him with the desertion of his own cause when 
he accepted a place among the six electors, thereby acknowledging their right 
to decide upon his claims. His family continued to be revered long after his 
death, but their popularity excited the jealousy of succeeding caliphs, and most 
of them perished by open violence or secret assassination.* 

Moawiyah restored the military spirit of the Arabs to its former strength, 
and the office of caliph was retained in his house for seventy years. The 
fourteen princes who held the sceptre during that time form the Ommiyade 
dynasty, so called from Ommiyah, a prince of the Koreish and the ancestor 
of Moawiyah. Its founder, though he had declined the challenge of Ali to a 
personal combat, was a man of courage. His successors possessed little merit, 
and never partook in the toils and glories of war. 

Three attempts were made upon northern Africa, before it was added to 



* Gibbon — Taylor. 



128 RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 

the empire of the Saracens. An imperial army of thirty thousand men was 
first defeated by the lieutenants of Moawiyah, who did not conquer the land, 
but returned laden with booty. Akbah, however, made the first effectual step 
towards the subjugation of the country. He marched from Damascus at the 
head of ten thousand Arabs, forced great numbers of African auxiliaries to join 
his standard, and fought his way across the continent to the shores of the Atlantic. 
His zeal was checked by the sight of a boundless ocean, and he lamented that 
he could not march still forward to spread the religion of the prophet. Yet 
he was unable to preserve the conquests he had made. The Greeks and 
Africans revolted, and he fell in battle against them. His successor, Zuheir, 
attempted to avenge him, but shared his fate; and the final conquest was 
reserved for Hassan, governor of Egypt, who took and destroyed Carthage. 

The descendants of Theodoric, king of Spain, had by this time become quite 
enfeebled ; absence of foreign foes having caused the neglect of military disci- 
phne. The death of Witiza had been followed by the usurpation of Roderic, 
a Visigothic nobleman. The two sons of Witiza, who were thus deprived of 
the succession, had many friends in the country, among whom was Count 
Julian, the governor of Ceuta and Andalusia. Besides the feeling of resent- 
ment common to all the partisans of the injured orphans, Julian had a great 
cause of offence in the wrong done to him by Roderic in violating his daughter. 
He therefore, in 710, invited the Arabs into Spain; and they generously 
complied with his request. 

A small body of troops under Tarik, landed at the pillar or point of 
Europe, which they thence called Gebel el Tarik, (mountain of Tarik,) since 
corrupted into Gibraltar. Many Moslems followed them, and after some inde- 
cisive skirmishes, they met the Jroops of Roderic in a final battle, on the banks 
of the Gaudaleta, near the town || Xeres. Though they were vastly inferior 
in numbers, the defection of Archbishop Oppas and the sons of Witiza turned the 
fortune of the day against Roderic, whose troops gave way in all directions. 
Roderic fled on the back of his fleetest horse, but he lost his life in the 
waters of the Guadalquiver. The whole country submitted to the victorious 
Saracen, Toledo opening her gates to him, and in less than four months he 
was master of all the fertile provinces in Spain. A small but gallant band 
of patriots alone held out against the invaders ; and these, under command of 
Pelacrius, a cousin of Roderic, maintained themselves in the valleys and caverns 
of Cantabria, and eventually founded there the realm of the Asturias, called 
by the Arabs Galicia, the nucleus of the Christian kingdoms of Spain, which 
gradually arose in the middle ages. While the caliph gave audience to the 
ambassadors who informed him of the rapid career of victory pursued by his 
lieutenant in Spain, emissaries arrived from the east, to announce the success 
of Moslemism in India. 

Eudes, duke of Aquitaine, was almost independent of the Frankish mon- 
archs; his sovereignty was recognised in Gascony and Aquitaine, and he was 



ABDERAME. 



129 




DETEAT OF EODEKIC. 



chosen as common leader by the chiefs of the south, who found it necessary 
to lay aside the feud in which they had so long wasted their strength. The 
Provencals proclaimed him king, but the Septimanians were overwhelmed 
almost before they were aware of their danger. They hoped to surprise Eudes, 
but the result of a siege and battle near Toulouse checked their ardour, and 
prevented them from further hostilities until 726, when another invasion was 
defeated. Eudes thus acquired a high reputation over all Europe ; adventurers 
flocked to him from all parts ; a Saracen emir deserted the cause of Islaraism, 
and made an alliance with him ; it appeared probable that he would transmit 
to posterity high renown as a hero, and extensive power as a monarch. But 
Abderame, who governed Spain, suddenly attacked and defeated the friendly 
Moor, who was slain in the Pyrenees, while attempting to escape. Abderame 
next led a force of eighty thousand warriors through the mountain passes into 
Gascony. The Rhone was passed and the city of Aries besieged ; an army of 
Christians attempted the relief of the city ; but they were defeated with 
immense loss, and many thousands of their dead bodies were carried down 
the rapid stream into the Mediterranean. Abderame then passed without 
opposition the Garonne and Dordogne, but beyond them he found the intrepid 
Eudes, who had formed a second army and sustained a second and a most 
disastrous defeat. Eudes fled to implore the speedy aid of Charles Martel, and 
Abderame spreading his victorious career beyond the confines of Aquitaine, 
displayed the crescent beneath the walls of Sens and Autun. 

In compliance w^ith the request of the Aquitanian prince and for the 
preservation of his own power, Charles Martel marched against the invaders, 
whom he found in the centre of France between Tours and Poitiers. Here 
the hitherto unbroken course of western conquest was stopped. The Prankish 
leader had conducted his march under the cover of a range of hills, and came 
Vol. II. 17 



130 RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 

so unexpectedly upon the Saracens that Abderame was almost surprised. Six 
days of desultory fighting showed the superiority of the Saracen archers and 
horsemen in a skirmish or light encounter, but the hand to hand contest of 
the seventh day decided the fate of France. The heavy-armed and slow- 
moving Franks were regarded as an easy prey by the Saracens, who relied 
upon their activity and superior numbers, whilst the gigantic Austrasians regarded 
the Saracens in turn, as pigmies, and despised both them and their array. 
Equal skill and daring characterized the commanders, and each possessed the 
full confidence of his troops. Charles led his soldiers to the onset. The 
sabre and the battle-axe speedily levelled the first ranks of the foe, whose 
arrows and javelins whistled in vain around the mailed heads of their antago- 
nists. But the Saracen leader continually presented a new front; when his 
line was broken and his men dispersed he rallied them again, extended or 
contracted his lines at pleasure, and seemed to prolong the contest in' order to 
weary the arms of his opponents with mere slaughter. Yet the tall and strong 
barbarians of the west fainted not in the work of strife ; " they remained 
unmoveable as a wall, seeming as bound together by a bed of ice."* 

Ali, the cousin of the prophet, during the war against Moawiyah in Syria, 
displayed the most irresistible courage. As often as he smote a rebel, he 
shouted the Allah Acbar, " God is victorious," and in the tumult of a noc- 
turnal battle he was heard to repeat four hundred times that terrible exclama- 
tion. No less vigorous were the strokes which the iron-hand of Charles 
inflicted upon the heads of the unfortunate Arabs who came within his reach ; 
from their resemblance to the strokes of a hammer on the anvil was it that 
the mayor of the palace derived his surname of Martel. The valour of Eudes 
displayed itself in a hundred ways ; and his successful manffiuvre of wheeling 
upon the rear of the Saracen host first caused it to give ground. The Arabs 
became disordered and took to flight ; but Abderame had never learned to 
retreat ; he could neither be driven nor tempted from his post, but fought on 
with a few faithful followers until his head was cloven by the axe of a Frank. 
Thus were the Saracens taught to respect the Pyrenees as the bulwark of 
Christendom.f 

The grandson of Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed, bore the same name as 
the prophet himself. He had long been engaged in forming a party which 
should support him in his design of obtaining the Caliphate, and his emissaries 
laboured zealously in his cause in all parts of the empire. At his death, his 
son Ibrahim succeeded to his plans, his popularity, and his influence, and soon 
afterwards the intrepid Abu Moslem raised in Khorassan the black standard 
of the house of Abbas. The parties which distracted the Saracenic empire 
were henceforth known by the colours chosen for visible distinction ; the badge 
of the Abassides was black ; green was chosen by the Fatimites, the descendants 

* Isidore of Beja. t Gibbon — Taylor — Pictorial France. 



^Ir^^'^^^^x^^-v^rrr-v^^T'-'^-^rT'^;^^^ 




ABDALRAHMAN. 133 

of Ali; and white was used to mark the partisans of the Ommiades. Abul 
Abbas, or Abdullah, surnamed from his bloody reign, SafFah, (the sanguinary,) 
overthrew Mervan, the last of the successors of Moawiyah in Egypt. The 
unfortunate caliph was put to death, the graves of his ancestors were broken 
open, their bones scattered, their memory accursed, and all of their race who 
were captured were mercilessly slain. 

Abdalrahman, a descendant of Moawiyah, succeeded in eluding their 
vengeance. After a series of most wonderful adventures, he reached Spain, 
which had not yet been torn by dissensions. There he founded the second 
dynasty of the Ommiades, which ruled from the Atlantic to the Pyrenees 
above two hundred and fifty years. The Edrissites of Mauritania, and the 
Fatimites and Aglabites of Eastern Africa, followed this example of separation. 
The Abassidae resolved to change the seat of government from Damascus to a 
place which had not been defiled by the presence of the Ommiades ; they 
therefore founded Bagdad. They were general patrons of literature, science, 
and the arts, none more so than Haroun al Raschid, the hero of the Arabian 
nights. From Bagdad the love of learning spread over other parts of the 
Saracenic empire ; the Ommiades and the Fatimites imitated the Abassidae in 
encouraging its developement, and the Saracens were possessed of considerable 
learning while the Europeans were yet sunk in barbarism. During the seventy 
years which followed the death of the Emperor Heraclius, 641 — 711, the 
Byzantine throne was filled by seven princes of his house, all of whom 
rendered themselves detestable. It is enough to offer a mere chronological list 
of them, with the observation that their names, beyond all others, blacken the 
Byzantine annals. Heraclius Constantine was poisoned in 641, and his brother 
and successor, Heracleonas, Avas mutilated in the same year. Constantine III. 
like Nero murdered his brother. He died by the hands of a slave at Smyrna 
in 668. Constantine IV. put out the eyes of his brothers, and left the crown 
to Justinian II., a boy who filled the whole country with horrors for ten years, 
when he was deposed and tortured, 695. Leontius next usurped the throne. 
He was deposed in 698 by Tiberius Absimaris ; Justinian II. then renewed his 
claim to the throne, was re-established by the Bulgarians, and afterwards 
beheaded, 710. His son Tiberius, the last of the line of Heraclius, was slain 
in a church where he had taken refuge, 711. Philippicus Bardanes, Anasta- 
sius II., and Theodosius III. followed in quick succession. Leo the Isaurian, 
who had risen from the plebeian rank, came next. He had scarcely seated 
himself on the throne when he was called to defend his capital from the 
attacks of the Saracens. During thirteen months Constantinople was closely 
besieged and blockaded, and its lofty walls, and the use of the newly-invented 
and terrible Greek fire, only saved it from destruction. The successful defence 
of the capital, however, stopped the career of Moslem conquest in the east of 
Europe, as the victory of Poitiers had saved the west. " In spite of reason," 
says Keightley, " we always take pleasure in following the career of victory ; 



134 



RISE OF THE SARACENIC POWER. 



the mind feels elated by the contemplation of energy in action, and our 
moral sense is condemned to silence for the time. But there is an agreeable 
feature in the narration of the Arabian conquests which lessens our horror of 
the bloodshed and misery attendant upon war — they were not sanguinary. The 
Arab is by nature averse to blood, and little disposed to cruelty. Hence few 
acts of atrocity stain the early annals of the Arabian empire, and we can 
follow the warriors from victory to victory, without having our feelings out- 
raged by details of savage ferocity. All was honourable warfare ; the choice 
of the Koran, the ti'ibute, or the sword, w^as given to every people whom 
they attacked. If they accepted the first, they were received as brethren in 
the faith ; if the second, they became subjects ; if they tried the third without 
success, they still had their option of the former two." Under the direction 
of the former caliphs the Arabians applied themselves to the study of the 
Greek language and arts, and they quickly adopted as their own the learning 
of the ancients. Thus they learned the elements of mathematics, medicine, 
astronomy, natural history, and philosophy, and the extent to which they 
carried their development almost "warrants the appellation sometimes conferred 
upon them, that of the fathers of science. Agriculture, commerce, and manu- 
factures are greatly indebted to them ; their poets, historians, and metaphysicians 
pursued a hterary career as brilliant as the march of the successors of the 
prophet was glorious; schools arose wherever they settled, from the banks of 
the Euphrates to the Tagus ; the lights of science ilkimined even the dark 
and barbarous shores of northern Africa ; and the wealth and splendour of 
Bagdad, Ispahan, Kufa, Damascus, and Cordova are described by Moham- 
medan historians in a manner which even now challensies belief. 





NORMAN ARMOUR. 



CHAPTER IV. 



©Ime^ o'l ©fjaskraagEe anlj fulg ^njccpg^erg, 




)EFORE his death, Pepin had divided his kingdom into 
T"^^ two parts ; and the national assembly of nobles, sanc- 
tioning a partition which was so obviously advan- 
tageous to them, immediately crowned Carloman king 
of Austrasia and the German States, and Charles, (after- 
wards surnamed Magnus, Charhmagne,) of Neustria, 
Burgundy, and Aquitaine. (A. D. 768.) The death of 
Pepin le Bref, was followed by revolts and insurrections 
in the tributary kingdoms. In Italy, Didier, the Lom- 
bard king, aided by the Duke of Bavaria, revolted 
from the Franks ; whilst Aquitaine, which had scarcely 
a month before been conquered with so much difficulty 
by Pepin, attempted to recover its independence. 
Hunald, the aged father of the murdered Waifre, left the 
monastery, in which he had been immured for twenty- 
three years, and placing himself at the head of his numerous vassals, prepared 
to dehver his country and revenge the death of his son. Instead of assisting 
his brother, in these exigencies, Carloman quarrelled with him and refused his 
aid. Charlemagne, how^ever, collected his leudes and vassals and marched against 
Hunald. That unfortunate man was forced to retreat, and soon after was taken 
prisoner and condemned to perpetual imprisonment. 

The unexpected power and valour of the young king of Neustria awed, 
for a time, the King of the Lombards, who submitted to Charlemagne and 
paid the desired tribute. 

From the pursuit of his enemies, Charlemagne next turned to chastise his 

(135) 



-'•^I^t'XjCiT? 



136 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

brother for refusing to assist him in the war. The dethronement of Carloman 
was prevented by his death in 771, and his widow having fled with her two 
children to the court of Didier, Charlemagne took into his own hands the 
kingdom of Austrasia, and thus once more united France under one government. 
The next year, 772, witnessed the commencement of the long and desper- 
ate struggle of the Saxons for liberty. They were a people inhabiting the 
whole of the northern region of Germany, extending from Slavonia on the 
east, to the German Ocean on the west. The population comprised three 
distinct races : the Westphalians, on the north ; the Angrians, in what is now 
called the kingdom of Prussia ; and the Eastphalians, bordering on Bohemia. 
They still, as in the time of Tacitus, disdained to dwell in towns or villages, 
or to depend on any of the peaceful arts for their subsistence, choosing rather 
to keep up a system of continual predatory incursions on their neighbours. 
They were idolaters, worshipping their idols or images in the great forests 
which extended throughout the whole length and breadth of their country. 
They had long been tributary to the Franks, and though they often attempted 
to throw off the yoke, yet the want of union among themselves always 
prevented it. While governed by the Merovingians, they were permitted to 
retain their ancient customs, and the yoke was comparatively light. But under 
Charles Martel and Pepin le Bref, their institutions were attacked, a new 
religion was forced upon them; churches were built in their territories, and 
around them houses and villages began to cluster; they were persecuted on 
account of their manners, their religion, and their political institutions. 

These innovations were rendered so oppressive in the beginning of the 
reign of Charlemagne, that the Saxons were instigated to a universal revolt. 
The missionaries who were imposed upon them by the Saxons, constantly 
insulted their national pride. One of them* even went so far as to threaten 
them with the arms of the great empire. The people were only prevented from 
taking his life by the personal interference of the Saxon elders. The young 
men, however, burnt down the church which the Franks had built at Daven- 
ter. They next proceeded to take possession of all the castles and strong 
places which had been built in their territories by Charles Martel and Pepin, 
and to these places they conveyed their wuves and children, their maimed and 
sick, together with all their gods and w^ealth. In one of them, the castle 
of Eresburg, near Paderborn, they deposited their great idol, the Herman-saul. 
This was a statue, armed cap-a-pie, supported on a rude pillar, carrying in its 
right hand a standard on which a rose was painted, and in its left, a balance. 
On its buckler a lion was represented, and on its breast there was a rude 
carvino; resemblino- a bear. 

Charlemagne appeared, and captured all the fortresses in succession, the 
only one which offered a show of resistance being that near Paderborn, in 

* St. Libuin. 



EXPEDITION INTO ITALY. 139 

which their ^m], Herman-saul, was deposited. This too, was taken, the 
fortress razed to the ground, and the idol burned to ashes. The Saxons were 
thus scattered, but not vanquished; they retired from the sight of their con- 
queror and hid themselves in the impenetrable forests and marshes, ready 
whenever an opportunity should occur, to renew the w^ar. Vengeance was 
now added to the many and strong motives by which they had at first been 
actuated. Nor had they to wait long for a fit opportunity to revolt. 

In Italy, the pope and the king of the Lombards had been menacing 
each other for years, but they were both afraid to proceed to open hostilities. 
The pope longed to add Lombardy to his dominions ; but he could not do so 
without the aid of the Franks. Didier, on the other hand, was enraged at 
seeing the territory of the exarchs in the hands of the pope, and was only 
restrained from burning the Holy City by the terror of Charlemagne. This 
state of things, however, was soon brought to a crisis. Didier solicited the 
pope to consecrate as Kings of France, the two sons of Carloman, who 
hail fled to him for refuge. This the pope refused to do, and Didier imme- 
diately raised an army of Lombards and marched against him. Pope A(h-ian 
manned the walls of the city, and having put everything in a position to resist 
a lengthened siege, despatched messengers, calling urgently for the help of 
Charlemagne. 

This was the juncture which had so long been coveted by Charlemagne. 
He had now a pretext for interfering in the affairs of the Lombards ; and the 
pope, by his message had declared himself entirely subservient to his wishes. 
He immediately appointed a rendezvous for his army at Geneva. At that 
place he divided his forces into two grand divisions, and crossing the Alps at 
Mount Cenis and the Great St. Bernard, chased the Lombards before him 
until they were compelled to seek refuge within the walls of Pa via and Verona. 
The Frank monarch immediately laid siege to both places. Hunald, who had 
escaped from prison and thrown himself, with Didier, into Pavia, compelled 
the people to hold out until he was stoned to death in the streets by the 
infuriated women. Didier, fearing the same fate, surrendered the city to 
Charlemagne. Didier's son, who commanded in Verona, fled to Constantinople ; 
and all Lombardy, with the exception of Beneventum, fell into the hand of 
the Franks. Charlemagne then added the title of King of the Lombards to 
that of King of the Franks. While the siege of Pavia was in progress, 
Charlemagne paid a visit to Rome, where he was received with the greatest 
honour, and treated as the deliverer and saviour of the Holy City. 

No sooner had Charlemagne quitted Italy in order to oppose the Saxons, 
than an insurrection, excited by Adalgisius, the son of Didier, broke out in 
Friuli and Trevisa; but the prompt defeat and execution of Rodgand, the 
Duke of Friuli, put an end to the revolt and confirmed the obedience of the 
other Lombard chiefs. 

In the meantime the Saxons, who thought that Charlemao-ne's Italian 



140 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

expedition would have lasted longer than it really did, had again revolted. 
The assembly, or council of Worms, which convened in the spring of 776 
took a solemn oath to prosecute the war until the Saxons should be converted 
to Christianity. Charlemagne marched against them and surprised them on 
the banks of the Lippe. They submitted, and he built a fort at the place. 
In token of their entire submission they consented to receive Christian baptism. 
Charlemagne called a general convention of the Saxons of Paderborn, when he 
exacted from the chiefs an oath of fealty to him as their suzerain. One only 
of the Saxon chieftains escaped this humiliation. Witikind, the leader of the 
Westphalians, instead of repairing to the convention at Paderborn, fled to 
Denmark. There he collected around him many of his discontented country- 
men, and many warlike Danes, and held himself in readiness, as soon as 
Charlemagne should retire, to fall upon his garrisons and again work out the 
liberty of his country. 

While Charlemagne was at Paderborn, (A. D. 777,) he was waited upon 
by several Saracen emirs from Spain, who solicited his protection for their 
oppressed countrymen from the tyranny of Abderarae. As soon, therefore, as 
the Saxons had been pacified, or had disappeared, Charlemagne convoked the 
Champ de Mai, or assemblage of the nobles and people, in Aquitaine. War 
was speedily resolved on. The Franks entered Spain, and in 778 laid siege 
to Zaragossa. The fall of Zaragossa was followed by the submission of all 
the country from the Ebro to the Pyrenees, over which, under the name of 
the Spanish March, Charlemagne placed a Frank governor. On returning 
towards France, the rear-guard of his army was attacked by the Gascon 
mountaineers under Lupus, their duke, in the Rocky pass of Roncesvalles. 
These active soldiers of the mountains descending with irresistible force, swept 
all before them. The most celebrated warriors of Charlemagne, his peers or 
paladins, and the elite of his army perished in this terrible struggle. Among 
these paladins was Roland, the nephew of the king, whose deeds have been 
celebrated by poet and minstrel, in every age since his death. 

The absence of Charlemagne in Spain encouraged the Lombards and the 
Saxons again to revolt. Charlemagne first marched to Italy, where he soon 
succeeded in punishing the rebels, although they had called in the assistance 
of the Greeks. He then shaped his course to the banks of the Elbe and the 
Weser and commenced a war of extermination against the Saxons. Witikind 
had entered Saxony at the head of his band of Saxons and Danes, and declared 
his country independent. In this war, prompted by vengeance on the one 
hand and by despair on the other, both parties were bent upon exterminating 
each other. In one day, in the year 782, the Franks barbarously massacred 
4,500 Germans, justifying themselves with the thought that they were extend- 
ing the blessings of religion and civilization. This outrage was soon revenged 
by Witikind, who, in an ambush, captured 2,400 Franks, every one of whom 
was sacrificed. Thus was the war carried on in Germany, until at least a 







i. 



AFFAIRS OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. 143 

hundi'ed leagues of territory was laid waste and desolate, and Witikind the 
brave, was compelled to relinquish all hopes of freedom, and sue to his con- 
queror for mercy. (A. D. 785.) He, with many of his followers, were baptized; 
Charlemagne declared all the Saxons Christians, and death was proclaimed to 
be the punishment of apostacy, or their return to the worship of their fallen 
gods, or of the rejection or refusal of any of the rites or usages of the church 
of Rome. 

Tassillo, Duke of Bavaria, had become brother-in-law to the Lombard 
Duke of Beneventum, by marrying a daughter of Didier, and now made 
common cause with the Lombards. They determined on another revolt. The 
Duke of Beneventum called the Greeks to his aid, while Tassillo called in the 
Slavi and the Huns or Avars. Three armies of Franks w^re sent to Italy; 
by them Tassillo was surrounded and compelled to surrender. He was then 
cited as a common criminal before the assembly at Ingelheim. He was found 
guilty of treason and sentenced to death. This sentence was commuted to 
that of the tonsure, and imprisonment in a monastery. Bavaria was annexed 
to the empire of Charlemagne. (A. D. 786.) 

During the bloody wars of the Ommiades and Abbassides, which finally 
resulted in the downfiill of the former and the elevation of the latter house, 
the Greeks had taken the opportunity to revenge their wrongs and extend the 
boundaries of their empire. Mohadi, however, the third caliph of the Abbas- 
sides, while the Byzantine throne was occupied by Irene and Constantine, sent 
against them an army of ninety-five thousand Persians and Arabs, under the 
command of his second son Haroun. His encampment on the opposite heights 
of Chrysopolis, (781,) was the first intimation which Irene had of their approach 
towards Constantinople. The empress was compelled to purchase an ignominious 
peace, by the payment of an annual tribute of seventy thousand dinars. 

Five years afterwards, Haroun, the commander of this expedition, ascended, 
the Moslem throne ; and in a reign of twenty-three years, he invaded the 
Roman empire eight times. Whenever the emperors refused to pay the tribute, 
the ignominy of which they vainly wished to soften by calling it an exchange 
of royal gifts, the commander of the faithful taught them the sad lesson, that 
a month of depredation was more costly than a year of submission. When 
Irene was deposed and banished in 802, her successor, Nicephorus, determined 
to make an attempt to throw off the yoke of the Saracens. He sent an epistle 
to the caliph Haroun al Raschid, in which he alluded to the game of chess, 
which had even at that early date, spread throughout all the countries of the 
east. " The queen," (he spoke of Irene,) " considered you as a rook, and 
herself as a pawn. That pusillanimous female submitted to pay a tribute, the 
double of which she ought to have exacted from the barbarians. Restore, 
therefore, the fruits of your injustice, or abide the determination of the sword." 
At these words, the ambassadors cast a bundle of swords before the foot of 
the throne. The caliph smiled at the menace, and drawing his scimetar 



J 44 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 




Samsamah, a weapon of historic or fabulous renown, he cut asunder the feeble 
arms before him, without turning- the edge, or endangering the temper of his 
blade. He then (Uctated an epistle of tremendous brevity : " In the name of 
the most merciful God, Haroun al Raschid, Commander of the Faithful, to 
Nicephorus, the Roman dog. I have read thy letter, O thou son of an unbe- 
lieving mother. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt behold, my reply."* The 
emperor not only behekl his reply, he was made to feel it. 

FTER a short interval the caliph 
marched against him with an im- 
mense army ; desolated the plains 
of Phrygia ; and after compelling 
the Romans to submission, re- 
tired to his palace of Racca, on 
the Euphrates. The distance of 
Racca from Constantinople, and 
the inclemency of the winter, 
induced Nicephorus to violate 
the peace. With astonishing ra- 
pidity the commander of the 
faithful crossed the snows of Mount Taurus, with three hundred thousand men, 
and with as much apparent ease as if the season were the most propitious; 
met the emperor with one hundred and thirty-five thousand regular soldiers. 
The battle which followed stands unparalleled in the history of warfare for 
the obstinacy with which it was contested, and the cruelty by which it was 
attended. Nicephorus was ashamed of submission, and Haroun was determined 
on victory. The Roman emperor escaped from the battle with three wounds, 
leaving forty thousand of his men dead upon the field. The Saracens then 
swept over the whole of Asia Minor, marking their course with devastation 
and ruin, and leaving their answer to the message of the emperor in letters of 
blood and fire. They continued their progress of desolation until Nicephorus 
was obliged to retract his haughty defiance. A treaty was made, in which it 
was stipulated that the ruins of Heracla, a city which had been destroyed by 
the Saracens should be forever left as a caution and a trophy ; the tribute was 
again imposed and the coin in which it should be paid was to be stamped 
with the image and superscription of Haroun and his three sons. This plu- 
rality of masters afterw^ards proved an advantage to the Romans. When Al 
Raschid died, his sons w^ere involved in civil discord, and he who remained 
conqueror w^is too much engaged in his domestic concerns to pay much atten- 
tion to foreign conquests. 

In the meantime, Charlemagne, having advanced to the Elbe, found himself 
in the presence of the Slavi, who were at war among themselves. He was 



* Gibbon 



CONQUEST OF THE HUNS. 145 

urged to assist the Abfodites against the Wiltzi. He lent them his aid, and 
finally, after conquering their enemies annexed their country to his empire. 

Occupying thus the country between the Elbe and the Oder, Charle- 
magne encountered the Huns or Avars, a wild Tartar people then inhabiting 
the marshes of Hungary, from which they, at will, made predatory incursions 
into the country of the Slavi on the one side, and of the Greeks on the other. 
They lived in an immense camp or ring, which was a large wooden village, 
extending over a whole province, the streets and houses of which were so far 
apart that a shout could scarcely be heard from one to the other. This ring 
was encircled and defended by hedges of trees, standing close together and 
having their branches interlaced. Within this enclosure, which is said to have 
been twelve or fifteen leagues in circumference, was deposited the plunder of 
centuries, consisting of articles of immense value, the worth or use of which 
was almost unknown to their ignorant possessors. This was the royal ring. 
Besides it there were eight other circles, themselves ranged in the form of a 
circle, and each separated from the next by a space of thirty or forty miles. 

These barbarians now sought to exact tribute from their new neighbours, 
the Franks, as they had long been accustomed to do from the Greeks. Charle- 
magne, however, sent three large armies against them, which penetrated as 
far as the Raab, burning a few huts ; but which failing to find the clue to the 
construction of their rings, became confused among marshy plains and bogs, 
where they were almost worn out with fatigue, and where they lost all their 
horses, while seeking an invisible enemy. Charlemagne's army being thus 
crippled, he was compelled to recruit it by pressing into his service the people 
of Frisia and Saxony. It was not enough for Charlemagne to compel these 
people to receive Christianity, but he now forced them to forsake the language, 
manners and customs, and even the dress of their fathers, and to fight in the 
ranks of the Franks, their greatest enemies. There w^as no hope for these 
recruits. Death was their only refuge. If they advanced against the Moors 
of Spain, the Lombards of Beneventum, or the Avars of Hungary, the weight 
of the battle would surely fall upon them, and their lives being accounted as 
nothing, not one of them ever expected to return to his friends and his country. 
Such being their hard lot, they preferred seeking death in their own land to 
dying in distant and strange countries. They revolted, and in one night 
massacred the lieutenants of Charlemagne, destroyed the priests, burnt the 
churches, and returned with increased alacrity to the worship of their ancient 
gods. They entered into a covenant with the Avars and agi'eed to make 
common cause with them against the Franks. 

In the same year, 792, the Saracens invaded Aquitaine, burnt the towns 
and villages in their road, defeated a large army drawn together by William, 
Count of Toulouse, and carried off many prisoners and great booty to Spain. 

The prospects of Charlemagne were gloomy. The whole world seemed 
to be united against him. Several works of importance, which he thought 
Vol. II. 19 



146 CHARLEMAGNE AND HI S S U C C ESSORS. 

necessary for the defence of his empire, were hindered in the execution or 
destroyed as soon as finished. Nothing daunted by these reverses, the great 
conqueror seemed to awaken from a short sleep ; and it was not long before 
he assumed his former ascendency. 

As he found it impossible to subdue the Saxons, he determined to make 
a desert of their country. He formed a permanent encampment on the Weser, 
from which he made inroads in every direction, carrying off more than one- 
third of the inhabitants, and driving them out of their country towards the 
south and west, settling them in the midst of Christians, and people speaking 
a different language, having different manners, and whom they had always 
considered as hostile. Charlemagne thus followed the example of the Baby- 
lonians and Persians when they carried the captive Jews to the banks of the 
Tigris, and the Chalcideans to the shores of the Persian Gulf. 

In 794, a son of Charlemagne with an army of Lombards and Bavarians, 
undertook an expedition against the Avars. Crossing the Danube and the 
Theiss he approached them from the south, and happened to arrive at the 
precious 7-ing in which the khan or chagan and the chiefs of the Huns were 
assembled, and in which was hoarded the wealth obtained during two hundred 
and fifty years of depredations upon nearly all the nations of Europe and Asia. 
The Huns, being surprised, fled or were slain. Their treasures fell into the 
hands of their conquerors, and served to enrich France and Italy. It would 
seem as if this hoarding race had lost its life with the gold over which it 
brooded — like the dragon of Scandinavian poetry ; for it at once fell into a 
state of pitiable weakness. Its chagan became a Christian, and they who^ 
remained Pagans were constrained to eat out of wooden platters along with 
the dogs, at the gates of the bishops sent to convert them. Some years after- 
wards they humbly sought from Charlemagne refuge in Bavaria, alleging their 
inability to defend themselves against the Slavi, of whom they had formerly 
been the absolute masters.* 

After the extirpation of the Huns, Pope Leo III., the successor of Adrian, 
visited Charlemagne at Paderborn, and besought his protection from the daggers 
of assassins, by whom he had been attacked in the streets, and from whom he 
had been miraculously delivered. He was honourably received by Charlemagne, 
who compassionated his misfortunes and sent him back to Rome with a guard 
of counts and bishops. The next year, the king of the Franks visited Rome 
in person, and Leo having sworn to his innocence of the crimes imputed to his 
charo-e, his enemies were silenced and those who had attacked him were 
banished. Charlemagne was received with the greatest honours at Rome ; the 
people hailed him as the deliverer — the saviour of their city and their religion. 
In order to please them still more, he threw off the simple dress of his country- 
men and assumed that of a Roman patrician. On Christmas day, (A. D. 800,) 

* Michelet's History of France. 



CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE. 149 

Charlemagne being engaged in prayer on the steps of the altar of the church 
of St. Peter, Leo suddenly placed a crown of gold upon his head, pronouncing 
at the same time the old form of words used at the coronation of every Chris- 
tian emperor — " Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, 
crowned by God, the great and pacific Emperor of the Romans." The clergy 
and people by whom the church was filled, repeated the formula as with one 
voice, and the church of St. Peter's resounded with the acclamations of 
thousands. The pope then consecrated his head and body with the royal 
unction, and, together with the assembled clergy and princes, did him homage. 
Charlemagne took an oath to preserve the faith and privileges of the church, 
and finished the ceremony by making rich presents and offerings to the shrine 
of the apostle. The emperor afterwards denied all knowledge of the intentions 
of Leo ; but there is such a weight of presumptive evidence showing that he 
expected such a thing, if he did not actually come to the Holy City merely 
to receive the honour, that such an assertion cannot easily be credited. 

The empire, however, was still divided. The aged Irene governed in the 
Eastern, while the authority of Charlemagne was confined to the Western 
moiety of the ancient empire. In order to unite them, the pope projected the 
marriage of Charlemagne with Irene. Neither of the persons principally 
concerned, however, would listen for a moment to the proposal.* It has been 
said, notwithstanding, that Irene despatched an embassy to Aix-la-Chapelle, to 
negotiate the terms of such a marriage, and that the negotiations were only 
broken off by her deposition and exile. f 

The sway of Charlemagne now extended over the entire realm of France 
with the exception of Brittany and the Basque Provinces, which still main- 
tained their independence ; over Germany and as fiir north as the Baltic, 
including Prussia, Poland, Bohemia, Bavaria, Switzerland, and Hungary, to 
the Danube ; over Italy as far south as Beneventum ; and over that part of 
Spain between the Pyrenees and the Ebro. His empire may therefore be said 
to have been bounded by the Atlantic on the WTst, the Baltic on the north, 
the river Vistula or Elbe on the east, and the Mediterranean on the south. 
The government of these immense regions required no ordinary political skill 
and knowledge of human nature ; and it is the talent and judgment which he 
displayed in his civil administration that entitles Charlemagne to the rank 
which he holds as a great historical character, more than all his victories or 
the magnitude of his domain. Not that in the present day all he did could 
be approved or tolerated ; but what was equally good or better, his measures 
were adapted to the age in which he lived, and had the effect, rude and 
savage as we may now deem them, of at once planting the seeds of general 
civilization, and imparting an impulse to their growth. If we may not regard 
hira as a philosopher, intellectually in advance of his generation, he appears to 

* Michelet. f Piclorial France. 



150 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

have been at least a sound-thinking and practical statesman, capable of tracinp; 
passing events to their causes, and of drawing thence useful hints for the 
future — not in solitary instances, but throughout his long and arduous career. 
His means of achievement were incessant activity of body and mind ; and his 
great aim seems to have been the establishment of a power, which might 
become the rich and peaceful heritage of his posterity.* 

Charlemagne, how^ever, had many vices and faihngs, which it is the 
imperative duty of the historian to record, as well as his virtues. He was not 
remarkable for chastity. He had many mistresses, and married five times. On 
the death of his fifth wife, he selected four concubines with whom he contented 
himself. He had six sons and eight daughters — the latter very beautiful and 
very frail, and whom he was suspected of loving with too strong a passion. 
He is accused of inordinate ambition, and his treatment of the sons of his 
brother Carloman is brought as proof; the massacre of the four thousand five 
hundred Saxons, speaks loudly against his humanity and justice. His military 
career was not distinguished by any very difficult siege or battle, and in every 
engagement he enjoyed a superiority over his opponents in point of numbers 
or of discipline. His laws were only temporary, discovering httle which could 
be designed for posterity, and he made a great mistake in dividing his king- 
dom among; his sons.f 

HOUGH the empire of Charlemagne," says M. Guizot, 
" can scarcely be called a state, which implies something 
of too regular a stamp, and raises ideas too little in 
accordance with the society over which he presided, it is 
certain that he, the master of an immense territory, was 
nidignant at beholding all things therein in a most dissev- 
ered, anarchical, and brutish condition, and devoted his 
eneigies to lessen their hideousness. His first measure was to despatch his 
missi dominici, (royal commissioners,) into the different provinces of his empire, 
to inquire into facts, and either reform what was amiss or make reports 
thereon to him. He held general assemblies much more regularly than his 
predecessors, and compelled the attendance of almost all the influential men in 
his territories. These were not free assemblies, nor convoked for what we 
should call deliberation ; but were used as a means of acquiring information as 
to facts, and of introducing regularity and union among his disorganized 
subjects." 

In 801, the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, wishing to secure the friendship 
of the enemy of his enemy, the usurping Caliph of Cordova, sent a messenger 
with presents to Charlemagne. These presents sent from Bagdad to Aix-la- 
Chapelle seem to have filled the beholders with wonder and awe ; among them 
were the keys of the holy sepulchre, a consecrated standard of Jerusalem ; a 

'*• Bussey and Gaspey's History of France. f Michelet. Gibbon. 




INCURSIONS OF THE NORTHMEN. 151 

wheel-clock that struck the hours ; a hand-organ ; an ape, and an elephant. 
Charlemagne acknowledged the presents and sent an embassy to Bagdad for 
the purpose of forming an alliance with the Commander of the Faithful and 
securing the protection of Christians throughout the east. 

The next year, (802,) Nicephorus, Emperor of Constantinople, sent ambas- 
sadors to Charlemagne, and a treaty of peace and alliance was concluded 
between the two emperors. 

About the year 808, Godfrey the Northman, first landed in Frisia, and 
commenced the system of plunder and devastation which he afterwards carried 
on with so much avidity. The fleets of the Greeks and the Saracens also 
made occasional descents on the undefended coasts of the immense empire of 
the Franks. From its very size, Charlemagne found it impossible to protect 
it from these pirates. It is true, that he placed armed barks at the mouths of 
the rivers, but they could not defend the whole coast. His immense empire 
begins to crumble and become unwieldy. At one time two hundred armed 
barks fell upon Frisia took immense booty, and disappeared. Charlemagne 
collected men to repel them ; but when the army came together they were 
nowhere to be seen. 

The reUgious and hterary glory of the age of Charlemagne was principally 
derived from three foreigners. Benedict of Aniane, a Goth, undertook to 
reform the religious houses, and reconcile the differences introduced by St. 
Colomb and the Irish missionaries of the seventh century. Alcuin the Saxon, 
one of the greatest men in the history of the period, was first installed as 
tutor to Charlemagne, and afterwards to the nobles and princes about the 
court. Clement, an Irish monk, was intrusted with the instruction of a num- 
ber of children of all ranks and nations. Besides these three, the Frankish 
monarch gathered about him many other learned men. Among them the 
principal were Peter of Pisa, a professor in the university of Pavia ; Paul 
Warnefrid, the historian of the Lombards ; and Theodulfe, and Leidrade, two 
eminent churchmen and writers. 

He, however, did not limit his zeal for the revival of letters to the pro- 
tection and encouragement of men of learning. He began to study himself. 
Although, on his accession to the throne he could not write, he soon became 
a proficient in an art at this day considered indispensable. He next obtained 
some insight into the languages and astronomy. From Peter of Pisa, he 
learned grammar, and from Alcuin, rhetoric and logic. He made advancement 
in his court to depend in some degree on the acquirements of the candidates. 
He established a sort of academy in his palace, which he called the Palatine 
college, from which the university of Paris is supposed to have arisen. He 
instituted besides, two classes of schools, one of them intended for small 
children, or those who were just commencing to receive instruction. In these 
institutions, the psalms were read, and singing, arithmetic, and grammar taught. 
The other class of schools was intended for pupils of more advanced age and 



152 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

higher attainments, in which skilful teachers were employed. In these the 
liberal arts and the Holy Scriptures were studied. The instruction to be 
obtained in these schools, it may be supposed, was very limited, but still it 
was instruction and a great step taken towards farther improvement. 

Nor was the king satisfied with merely founding these institutions ; he often 
visited them and instructed the teachers in the course to be pursued, and the 
branches to be taught. He gave out questions to which he required the 
answers of the bishops, the monks, and the pupils : he examined personally 
into the proficiency of each pupil, and liberally encouraged the diligent while 
he threatened the idle and dull with his displeasure.* 

Being compelled to undertake certain military expeditions, he placed 
Clement at the head of one of these schools. On his return, after a long 
absence, he ordered Clement to bring those with whom he was intrusted into 
his presence, that he might satisfy himself concerning the manner in which 
they had spent their time. Finding that those of the middle and lower classes 
of the people displayed works better than he had hoped for, seasoned with 
wisdom, while the sons of the nobles could bring nothing forward but mere 
trifles, he placed those who had pleased him on his right hand, and the others 
on his left, and thus addressed them. Turning first to those on his right, he 
said, " A thousand thanks, my sons ; for your diligence in labouring according 
to my orders, and for your own good. Proceed ; endeavour to perfect your- 
selves, and I will reward you with magnificent bishoprics and abbeys, and 
you shall be ever honourable in my sight." Then turning to those on his 
left, he addressed them in a thimdering tone, and with bitter irony said, " But 
for you nobles, you sons of the great, dehcate and pretty minions as you are, 
proud of your birth and your riches, you have neglected my orders, and your 
own glory, and the study of letters, and have given yourselves up to ease, 
sports, and idleness, or to worthless exercises ; by the King of Heaven, (his 
usual oath,) I care little for your nobility and beauty, however others may 
admire you ; and hold it for certain, that if you do not make amends for your 
past negligence by vigilant zeal, you will never obtain anything from Charles. "f 

Thus, Charlemagne used all his influence and contributed by his own 
example to cultivate not only letters, but music, painting, sculpture, architecture, 
manufactures and commerce. He imported from Italy to Aix-la-Chapelle, many 
illuminated manuscripts ; he encouraged the Jews to trade with his subjects ; he 
protected and maintained at his court, many Saracens who were proficients in all 
the arts which are conducive to man's comfort and convenience. Commerce 
w^as greatly extended by means of the pilgrims who were continually going and 
returning to and from Jerusalem. They carried with them the productions of 
their native land, and brought back in exchange articles far more valuable to them. 

Charlemagne caused the general assembly of the nation to be held twice 

* Pictorial France. f Michelet. Traits Remarquable. 



POLICY OF CHARLEMAGNE. 



^55 



a year. This assembly had been annually convened since the time of Clovis, 
and every freem m was entitled to be present and take part in the deUbera- 
tions. Latterly, however, the inconvenience of attending had caused the 
meetings to be thinly attended, and, finally, none came but such as were 
specially summoned. To remedy this evil, and to give the meeting more the 
appearance of a popular assembly, he directed the counts to bring with them 
the local judges, who being thus compelled to give an account of the perform- 
ances of their functions, were restrained much more than formerly within 
legal bounds, and the wants of the people were more likely to be made known, 
and redressed. The people consequently took more interest in the affairs of 
the government, and the assemblies began to be numerously attended. These 
assemblies, however, were not of a legislative character. Their only apparent 
use under the Merovingians, was to enable the king to ascertain the feeUngs 
of his subjects on any questions of moment, and to gather the nobles and their 
retainers together for war. Charlemagne submitted projects of law and policy 
to their discussion ; but the adoption or rejection of any measure remained solely 
with him. He made use of them, coming as they did from every part of 
his immense empire, to inform himself of passing events, and of the wants 
and necessities of his subjects. The laws or capitularies were framed according 
to the information thus received, and of course cannot be considered as a 
regular system. According to Gibbon, " They compose, not a system, but a 
series of occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the refor- 
mation of manners, the economy of the imperial farms, the care of poultry, 
and even the sale of eggs," thus including the most trivial as well as the 
most important objects. 

OTWITHSTANDING his previous efforts to 
preserve its integrity, Charlemagne, in a ca- 
pitulary issued at Thionville, in 806, divided 
his empire among his three legitimate sons, 
Charles, Pepin, and Louis ; giving to one Italy, 
to another Germany, and to the third Aqui- 
taine. Charles and Pepin, how^ever, dying 
before their father, he gave Italy and Bava- 
ria to Bernard, the son of Pepin, and caused 
Louis to be elected emperor by the diet of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, in 813. He died some months 
afterwards at that place, which he had chosen 
for the capital of his empire.* 

Nicephorus I., the Emperor of the East, 
had his territory invaded by Crunnus, of Bulgaria, and, in 811, was defeated and 
slain in a battle with that prince. His son and successor, Stauracius, escaped 



m 




* Hirrtory of the INliikLle Ages. IMiclielet. Pictoiial France. 



156 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

wounded from the field. Six months afterwards he died of his wound, and 
was succeeded by Michael I., who, in 813, was also defeated by Crunnus. 

Louis, surnamed Le Debonnaire, (the meek,) had been educated by 
St. William, a monk of Toulouse, who strove to instil into his mind the 
necessity of a reformation. He went farther, however, than they wished or 
expected ; he began by reforming religious abuses ; declaring that bishops had 
nothing, or ought to have nothing to do with the practice of arms, and 
that it was inconsistent with their profession to follow the king on horseback. 
He put the monasteries \mder the severe rule and discipline of St. Benedict, 
the founder of the order of Benedictine monks. Thinking the court no place 
for priests, he dismissed Wala and Adalhard, grandsons of Charles Martel, 
to their monasteries. He purified the palace by driving thence his father's 
concubines, his sisters' lovers, and his sisters themselves. The latter were 
consigned to different convents and their lovers were banished. 

He then convoked a national assembly at Aix-la-Chapelle, from which 
vnissi dominici were sent into every province of the empire to observe, hear, 
and report on the local administration of justice. He listened with attention 
to the complaints of the Saxons, had many of their grievances redressed, 
absolved them from the tyranny of the clergy, and restored them the right of 
succession, of which his father had deprived them. He published an edict for 
the relief of the Spanish Christians ; and he permitted the clergy to choose 
their popes ; a right which they can scarcely be said to have enjoyed during 
the reign of Charlemagne. At the same assembly in which these changes 
were wrought, Bernard, the son of Charlemagne's eldest son, was invested 
with the government of Italy, while Louis and Pepin, the two sons of Louis 
were appointed to the government of Bavaria and Aquitaine. Lothaire, his 
eldest son, was to be emperor and the successor of Bernard in Italy. 

Thus the inheritance of conquests and of spoliations fell into the hands 
of a simple and just man, who chose at any cost to make reparation for all 
the injuries committed by his father. The barbarians, who recognised his 
sanctity, submitted their disputes to his arbitration. He sat on the judgment 
seat, in the midst of his people, like an easy and confiding father. He went 
about repairing, comforting, and restoring ; and it appeared as if he would 
willingly have given away the whole empire in making reimbursement.* 

Such an emperor was not suited to the age in which he lived. Neither 
was he suited to the people ; they required a governing mind and spirit ; a 
man who, at the head of his army, would keep them, as well as surrounding 
nations at a respectful distance. In less than three years after the accession 
of Louis, his kingdom was filled with revolts from one end of it to the other. 
Rome revolted from Pope Leo III. He sent to Louis for aid. Before he 
could give any assistance, the rebels were compelled to yield to the arms of 

=» Michelet. 



FATE OF BERNARD. 157 

Bernard, King of Italy. (A. D. 815.) Leo dying soon after, his successor, 
Stephen IV. adopting a milder course, reconciled the proud men of Rome, the 
rulers of the ancient world, to the sway of a priest. Stephen soon after 
visited France, and at Rheims consecrated Louis and Hermengarde, Emperor 
and Empress of Rome. 

In 817 an assembly was held, and a capitulary published, making new 
division of the empire. In this law Louis associated his three sons with him- 
self in the government. To Lothaire was given the title of emperor and 
colleague of his father ; Pepin was crowned King of Aquitaine and Burgundy ; 
and Louis, of Bavaria and the Slavonic Marches. Notwithstanding this division, 
Louis still held the whole empire and declared it to be indivisible — a puny 
effort to uphold the crumbling realm. 

In the mean time, Bernard, King of Italy, seeing that his kingdom would 
be given, at the death of his uncle Louis, to his cousin Lothaire, thought that 
such a disposition was unjust, and, instigated by the monks Adalhard and 
Wala, he adopted means for collecting an army, declared his independence, 
and laid claim to the whole empire as being the son of Charlemagne's eldest 
son Pepin. The barbarians, however, considering the title of a yoimger 
brother preferable to that of a nephew, he was soon betrayed by those in 
whom he confided, and deserted by all his friends. Seeing the impossibility of 
defending himself against Louis, Bernard accepted the promise of security given 
by Hermengarde, and resolved to throw himself on the mercy of the emperor. 
He hastened into France, met Louis at Chalons-sur-Saone, delivered himself 
up, and betrayed all his accompHces (A. D. 818). Hermengarde, it is said, 
judged the culprits and condemned them all to death ; but the emperor would 
not consent to their execution. His wicked empress, however, at last induced 
him to consent to Bernard's being deprived of his sight ; and she had the 
sentence executed in such a manner that the unhappy king died three days 
afterwards. Hermengarde, however, did not long survive him ; she died in 
October 818. 

While these proceedings against Bernard and his accomplices were in 
progress, other insurrections broke out on every side. The Slavi of the north 
and Pannonia, with the assistance of the Danes and the Bulgarians, arose on 
one side ; while, on the other, the Basques, of Navarre, aided by the Saracens, 
and the Bretons, depending on their own untried strength, seemed to spread 
the flame of civil war. They were all, however, soon crushed ; the country 
of the Bretons was occupied and garrisoned by foreigners for the first time; 
the Basques were defeated, the Saracens repulsed ; the Slavi were subdued and 
compelled to serve against the Danes, and the city of Hrmburg was founded 
as an additional barrier against the incursions of the men of the north. The 
Bulgarians were, with difficulty, driven out of Italy.* 

* Pictorial France. Michelet. 



158 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

While Louis was thus apparently flourishing in strength and justice, over- 
coming and humbling every enemy that presented himself, the Empire of the 
East was advancing, with as rapid strides as that of the West, to dissolution. 
In 813, Leo the Armenian was elected to the imperial dignity by the Thra- 
cian soldiers and his brother officers. Affecting at first, to hesitate about the 
acceptance of such a laborious honour, Michael the Phrygian, his companion 
in arms, advanced towards him with his drawn sword, saying, " With this 
sword, I will open the gates of Constantinople to your imperial sway ; or 
instantly plunge it into your bosom, if you obstinately resist the just desires 
of your fellow-soldiers." The choice was soon made: Leo V. was crowned 
emperor and he reigned seven years and a half. Near the end of that time, 
Michael the Phrygian, who had made himself so instrumental in raising Leo to 
the throne, repeatedly conspired against him. He was as frequently detected, 
warned, and pardoned. Again conspiring against the life of the emperor, he 
was detected, tried, convicted of treason, and condemned to be burnt in the 
furnace of the baths, on Christmas day (A.D. 820). The Empress Theophano, 
however, urging the impropriety and impolicy of such a spectacle on such a 
day, a reprieve was granted by the emperor. That reprieve was fatal. Michael 
found means to correspond with his friends, and early on Christmas morning 
while the emperor was assisting at the matins in his chapel, the conspirators 
entered, disguised as priests, with swords under their robes. They attacked 
Leo, who, being unarmed, attempted to defend himself with a heavy cross. His 
enemies were too numerous for him, and Leo was slain at the foot of the altar. 

Michael II. the Phrygian, surnamed, from an impecUment in his speech, 
the Stammerer, was taken from the mouth of the furnace to be placed upon 
the throne of the Caesars. So sudden was the change in his fortune, that a 
smith not being at hand, he was compelled to fill the throne for two or three 
hours before the fetters could be removed from his legs. He was ignorant 
and indolent. His title was disputed by Thomas the Cappadocian, a Slavo- 
nian, and the last of the three generals, (the other two being Leo and Michael,) 
who had led the armies of Nicephorus. With an army of eighty thousand 
barbarians, Thomas, in 822, laid siege to Constantinople. His camp was 
attacked by the Bulgarian allies of Michael ; he was taken prisoner ; his hands 
and feet were cut off; and then being seated upon an ass he was led through 
the streets of Constantinople, subject to the insults of the people, and even of 
the emperor himself, his old companion in arms. Michael II. died in 829, 
and his son, Theophilus, succeeded to the empire.* 

During the reign of Charlemagne the throne of Wessex, in England, was 
usurped by Beortric, and Egbert, the rightful king, was compelled to seek 
an asylum at the court of France. In 800, however, Beortric was poisoned 
by his wife, and Egbert, assisted by the King of the Franks, returned and 

* Gibbon. 



INCURSIONS OF THE NORTHMEN. 



159 



claimed his crown. He first established his authority over Devonshire and 
Cornwall; and then turned his arms against the Mercians, who had invaded 
Wessex. The two armies met near Wilton : that of Egbert was inferior in 
number to the other, but according to an old chronicler, " being lean, meagre, 
pale, and long-breathed, they gained a complete victory over the fat, corpu- 
lent, and short-winded Mercians." Mercia, including Kent and Essex, was 
then attached to Wessex. Two years afterwards, (825,) Egbert conquered 
Northumbria, and thus reduced the old Saxon Heptarchy into one kingdom 
which was called Wessex. No 
sooner was this approach to con- 
solidation made, than the Danes, or 
Northmen, appeared, and again 
threw everything into confusion. 
In 832, they landed on the isle of 
Sheppry, and carried off the plun- 
der to their ships. The next year 
they again landed, but this time 
they were met by the forces of 
Egbert, at Charmouth. A desper- 
ate battle ensued ; the Danes fought 
valiantly for a long time, and then 
made good their retreat to their 
ships. These Danes in their incur- ^? 

sions along the coast had formed \^^ \v 
a sort of intimacy with the native -^1 
Britons of Cornwall, and, in 834, 
landing on their coast, they were 
joined by the Britons in great force, 
and marched against Egbert. They 
met him at Hengsdown-Hill, but 
were there defeated with great 
slaughter. Egbert died in 836 
leaving his kingdom to his son 
Ethehoulf* 

During the reign of Michael the Stammerer, at Constantinople, and Alma- 
mon at Bagdad, the islands of Crete and Candia were both captured by the 
Saracens. The former was overrun, in 823, by some Andalusians, who prowled 
about the seas with about forty galleys. They wandered fearlessly through 
the whole island, taking whatever they fancied, as well captives as goods. 
On their return to the shore they beheld their small fleet in flames, and they 
began to rage and threaten the inoffensive inhabitants and would probably 




NORTHMAN OP THE NINTH CENTURY. 



* Pictorial EnirUind. 



160 CHARLEMAGNE AND HI S SUC C ESSORS. 

have murdered their captives, had not their chief, Abu Caab, confessed that 
he had set fire to their galleys. They accused him of madness or treachery. 
" Of what do you complain ?" he replied. " I have brought you to a land 
flowing with milk and honey. Here is your true country ; repose from your 
toils, and forget the barren place of your nativity." " And our wives and 
children ?" " Your beauteous captives will supply the place of your wives, 
and in their em.braces you will soon become the fathers of a new progeny." 
They fortified their camp on the bay of Suda. They soon afterwards removed 
to a more desirable part of the island, built a fortress which they called Can- 
dax, a name, corrupted to Candia, now applied to the whole island. They 
soon repaired the loss of their fleet, and kept and defended the island for 
upwards of 138 years against the whole power of the east. 

In Sicily, a young man who had stolen a nun from her convent was 
sentenced to lose his tongue. He escaped and fled to Africa, but soon return- 
ing with a fleet of one hundred ships, seven hundred horses, and ten thousand 
foot, he gained some partial victories and laid siege to Syracuse. That city 
was relieved by the Greeks, the leader of the invaders was slain, his fleet 
destroyed, and his followers reduced to the last extremity of famine. In this 
emergency they were reinforced by the arrival of an army of Saracens from 
Spain. They soon overran the whole island, except Syracuse, and established 
themselves at Palermo, as their head-quarters. After a siege of twenty days 
Syracuse was taken ; the deacon, Theodosius, with all the bishops and clergy 
were dragged, chained, to Palermo, where they were thrown into subterranean 
dungeons. In a short time the religion of Christ was totally eradicated, and 
Sicily became as completely a province of the Fatimite Caliph, as if it had 
never been imder the dominion of the Greek Christians.* 

Theophilus, who succeeded his father on the throne of Constantinople, was 
distinguished for his rash valour, and his arbitrary, and sometimes cruel justice. 
Five times he marched against the Saracens, but he was defeated by them. 
His justice was very irregular, and seemed to spring from the spur or passion 
of the moment, rather than from any established rule or law, and the penalty 
often bore no proportion to the offence. " A poor woman threw herself at 
the emperoi's feet to complain of a powerful neighbour, the brother of the 
empress, who had raised his palace wall to such an inconvenient height, that 
her humble dwelhng was excluded from light and air ! On proof of the fact, 
instead of granting, like an ordinary judge, sufficient or ample damages to the 
plaintiff, the sovereign adjudged to her use and benefit the palace and the 
ground. Nor was Theophilus content with this extraordinary satisfaction ; his 
zeal converted a civil trespass into a criminal act ; and the unfortunate patri- 
cian was stripped and scourged in the public place of Constantinople." This 
extreme severity had the effect of banishing everything like injustice from the 

* Gibbon. 



THEOPHILUS. 161 

empire, and at one time, after a scrutiny of seventeen clays, not a complaint 
or abuse could be found in the court or city. 

The marriage, as well as many other acts of Theophilus, seems to have 
happened by chance. Of two beautiful virgins, he did not know which to 
choose for his wife. Walking between them one day with a golden apple in 
his hand, and trembling on the verge of a declaration, but not being quite 
determined to whom to address it, he could only observe that " Women had 
been the cause of much evil." The beautiful Icasia, replied, pertly, " And 
surely, sir, they have likewise been the occasion of much good." This dis- 
pleased the royal lover, he turned aside in disgust, and bestowed the golden 
apple upon the modest and discreet Theodora. Icasia hid her mortification and 
herself in a convent. Theodora merited the love, but nevertheless she did not 
escape the severity of her lord. He one day beheld a vessel richly laden, the 
property of his wufe, steering into port. With a sharp reproach, he told 
Theodora that her avarice had degenerated the character of an empress into 
that of a merchant ; and immediately ordered the ship, with its valuable cargo, 
to be burned. Just before his death, his envy and jealousy caused him to 
sacrifice one of his best friends. A young Persian prince, whose father had 
been expelled from the throne, had been brought up at his court. More than 
once he discovered and disconcerted the schemes of the enemies of Theophilus. 
On his dying bed, however, the emperor, fearing the virtues of the young 
prince, demanded his head. When brought in to him, he recognized the 
features with almost savage delight ; " Thou art no longer, Theophobus," he 
said ; and at the same time sinking back on his couch, he faintly added, " Soon, 
too soon, I shall be no more Theophilus." He expired in 842, entrusting the 
guardianship of the empire and of his infant son Michael, to the Empress 
Theodora. 

For thirteen years Theodora, governed her subjects with wisdom and 
prudence. She endeared herself to the Greeks by her restoration of the images 
and the extirpation of the Iconoclasts. She strove, but in vain, to instil the 
principle of virtue into the mind of her son. In his eighteenth year he rejected 
her authority, and long before he was a man Michael III, took upon himself 
the weight of an empire. He immediately fell into all the vices of Nero ; he 
squandered the great riches which had been amassed by his father and grand- 
father ; he delighted in the amusements of the theatre, and sighed to excel in 
the charrict-race and the hippodrome ; he w^isted his strength by the indul- 
gence of love and intemperance; he paid no attention to the affairs of the 
empire ; he spent his time in amusement, debauchery, and sacrilege ; and in the 
thirtieth year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign, (867,) he was 
murdered while drunk and asleep, by Basil the Macedonian, the founder of a 
new dynasty.* 

* Gibbon. 
Vol. II. 21 



162 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS 




LOUIS-LS-DEBONNAIKE. 



In the mean time the prosperity of 
Louis-le-Debonnaire was brought to an end 
by his marriage with the talented but un- 
principled Judith, the daughter of Welf or 
Guelf, a Bavarian count. She bore Louis 
a son, Charles, and after that event, seems 
to have bent her whole mind and influence 
to his aggrandizement. She induced Louis 
to take from his sons the richest province 
of Germany and bestow it upon Charles. 
To add to the discontent of his people as 
well as his sons, Louis made a foreigner, 
Bernard, the son of St. William of Toulouse, 
the king's old tutor, his chief favourite. Ber- 
nard soon after became also the favourite 
of the empress. This conduct incited the 
three sons of the king, headed by Lothaire, 
to make war upon their father. The old 
man, at the instigation of Judith, in 832, made public confession of his faults 
and errors, and solicited pardon of all whom he had in any way wronged. 
This had no effect on his unnatural sons, and they twice took their father 
prisoner. The last time it occurred was in 833, near Colmar, in Alsace. The 
two armies encamped in a vast plain, which before that time was called Roth- 
fickl. There Louis was betrayed by his officers; and in a single night his 
whole army, with the exception of a few truthful followers, deserted him 
and joined Lothaire. At dawn, Louis, turning to those who still remained 
with him, said, " Go ye also to my sons, I wish not that any should suffer 
loss or injury for my sake." They departed with tears in their eyes, and 
Louis was again a prisoner in the hands of his sons. From this desertion of 
the nobles who had all sworn allegiance to Louis, the plain has since been 
called Lilgenfeld, or the Field of Lies. Judith and the young prince Charles 
were imprisoned at Tortona, and the old king was thrown into the monastery 
of St. Medard, at Soissons. He was soon afterwards forced by Lothaire to 
make a confession, in which he acknowledged himself as the author of all the 
misfortunes which had fallen upon France, and then to do public penance in 
the church of St. Medard. 

This treatment of his father, so enraged Louis of Bavaria, the best of the 
emperor's sons, that he, with his brother Pepin, proceeded against the usurper, 
and, in 834, compelled him to emancipate his father ; who again assumed the 
sceptre of the empire. Lothaire, however, persisted in his rebellion until the 
next year, when finding himself in the presence of his father whose army he 
could not now corrupt, he was fain to ask pardon for his offences, at the 



LOTHAIRE. 



363 




FRA.NK ^ViRRIOR OF THE 'JIME OP 
LOUIS-LE-DEBOHNAIRE. 



feet of the king. Louis fully forgave him on the 
condition that he would immediately retire to Italy, 
and not leave it again without permission. 

Unfortunately, Louis-le-Debonnaire had not 
learnt wisdom from his misfortunes. His first act 
was to order the nobles to restore to the churches 
the lands which they had usurped ; his next, to 
deprive Louis the German, the best of his sons, 
of all his possessions but Bavaria. Then Pepin 
of Aquitaine dying, his two sons were disinherited, 
and their patrimony divided between Lothaire and 
Charles, the son of Judith. Irritated by this un- 
just division, Louis the German took up arms 
against his father. The aged monarch sank under 
the fatigues and vexation of this new war, and 
as he was crossing the Rhine near Mentz, he felt 
that his end was approaching. He remained and 
pitched his tent upon a small island near Ingel- 
heim, where, on his death-bed, he pardoned his son 
Louis, in these words, " As he cannot come to me 
to offer satisfaction, I acquit myself thus towards 
him, and take God and all of you to w^itness, that I forgive him everything. 
But it will be your office to remind him, that although I so often pardoned 
him, he must not forget that he has brought the grey hairs of his father to 
the grave in bitter grief." He died on the 20th of June 840, in the twenty- 
seventh year of his reign. 

Lothaire, who succeeded his father as emperor, immediately began to 
assume great authority over his brothers. It was not to be expected that they 
who had not scrupled to take up arms against their father should be united 
among themselves. Lothaire aided Pepin, the son of the late King of Aqui- 
taine, against his brother Charles, afterwards surnamed le-Chauve, (the Bald). 
This was the commencement of another civil war, which, for the space of ten 
years, involved the empire in the most fearful anarchy. The emperor Lothaire 
and his nephew Pepin, combined against Charles and Louis of Germany. • The 
armies met at Fontenay, and Charles and Louis sent to inform Lothaire that 
they did not wish to fight against their brethren ; and if they could come to 
an amicable arrangement, they would " present him wnth all they had in the 
army, save the horses and men; or, they would cede to him a part of both 
their kingdoms ; or, they would divide all France into equal portions and give 
him his choice." They told him they would wait his answer until the twelfth 
hour of the next day ; after which they would abide the judgment of God. 
Lothaire treated the messengers with insolence and the message with contempt ; 
and acconhngly the two kings marched upon liim the next day at the precise 



164 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 



hour specified. The battle which followed is said to have been one of the 
most sanguinary within the memory of man. Some historians assert that forty 
thousand men were slain, while others extend the number to one hundred 
thousand. Lothaire was defeated, and compelled to fly from the field ; but 
the victorious princes were so weakened as to be incapable of pursuit. They 
retired to Strasburg, where, in the presence of the people and in the popular 
language, they renewed their alliance. 

Shortly afterwards, (843,) deputies from the three kings met at Verdun 
and concluded a treaty, which severed at one blow the imperial empire of 
Charlemagne, and divided Germany and Italy from France. By this treaty 
Germany, as far as the Rhine; and on the other side of the Rhine, Mentz, 
Spires, and Worms, were given to Louis, who, in the language of his king- 
dom, was henceforward called Ludowick the German. Lothaire retained the 
imperial dignity without the power ; the sovereignty of Italy, and a long, 
narrow strip of land between Germany and France, from the Alps to the 
Netherlands. Charles the Bald, received for his portion, the western division 
of the whole Frankish kingdom, or what is now known by the name of France.* 

During the disorders subsequent to 
the death of Louis-le-Debonnaire, the Nor- 
mans, instead of being watched and re- 
pelled if they attempted to enter the 
mouths of the rivers, were employed by 
the younger Pepin against Charles the 
Bald. It is said that Pepin even went so 
far as to adopt their religion in order to 
secure their aid in recovering his patri- 
mony. Encouraged by him, in 841, Oscar 
the Sea-king, sailed up the Seine and burned 
the city of Rouen, after carrying the plun- 
der to his ships. In 843, the Northmen 
entered the Loire, when they plundered 
and burned the city of Nantes. Pepin was 
soon overcome by Charles the Bald, but the 
Northmen, who now tasted of the beauty 
and fertility of France, were not so easily 
banished, Charles tried every means in 
his power, before appealing to the sword. In 845, an immense army of these 
marauders, advanced to the very gates of Paris, and Louis, instead of attack- 
ing them as he might have done, his army being then encamped in the plains 
of St. Dennis, offered their leader Regnier, seven thousand pounds weight of 
silver, if he would immediately retire from the kingdom and swear never to 




CnaRLES THE BALD. 



* Kolilrausch. Pictorial France. JVIichelet. Bonnecliose. 



POPE LEO IV. 165 

return. The money was of course accepted, and the oath taken without scru- 
ple, and Regnier returned to the north, pubUshing an account of the weak- 
ness and great riches of the Franks. In consequence of this where one had 
formerly volunteered on these expeditions, hundreds now offered themselves, 
and France was soon overrun with them. In 847, they captured and burned 
Bordeaux.* 

After having, for the last ten years, associated his son Louis 11. with him 
in the empire, Lothaire died in a cloister, in 855, leaving Provence to his 
son Charles, and to Lothaire II. Lorraine. Lothaire having separated himself 
from his wife, he was ordered by Pope Adrian II. to take her back. This 
he refused to do, and the infuriated pope denounced the vengeance of Heaven 
on him if he would not quickly amend his life. He died in the following week ; 
and this being thought by the people to be a judgment of Heaven, Louis of 
Bavaria, and Charles the Bald, profited by it, and divided the empire 
between them.f 

In 846, a Saracen fleet arrived at the mouth of the Tiber, from the 
coast of Africa. They plundered the temples of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
stripping them of their costly ornaments, and then advanced by the Appian Way 
towards Rome, pillaging Fondi and laying siege to Gaeta. The people of 
Rome were filled with consternation. They sent to soUcit aid of the emperor, 
but his troops were defeated by a detachment of the Saracens. To add to 
their dismay, their spiritual and temporal leader, the pope, died in this emer- 
gency. The dangers to which the city was exposed, however, had the good 
effect of preventing the intriguing and the numberless forms usual on the election 
of a pontiff, and, in their haste, they unanimously chose Pope Leo IV., a man 
born a Roman, with the old Roman courage glowing in his breast. His first 
care was to consecrate and purify the church. He then began to repair the 
old walls; he rebuilt fifteen towers, and caused a chain to be drawn across 
the Tiber, to prevent the ships of the infidels from approaching the city. 
In the midst of these preparations, the people were rejoiced to hear that their 
enemies, having raised the siege of Gaeta, had suddenly embarked, and a 
storm arising, many of their vessels were destroyed. 

In 849, however, they again returned to the Tiber, this time assisted by 
their African neighbours, the Moors. Leo, in the meantime, had formed an 
alliance for mutual protection with the maritime states of Gaeta, Naples, and 
Amalfi ; and the combined fleet of these three powers, under the command of 
Ccesarius, a young man of Naples, who had already distinguished himself 
against the Saracens, appeared in the time of danger in the port of Ostia. 
The pope blessed his defenders, and they drew up their galleys near the coast 
to await the attack of the infidels. The Moslems advanced with intrepidity 
against the Christian fleet, and a furious battle commenced. The victory 

* Piftoriivl Fiance. f Bumiecliose. 



166 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

seemed to incline to the side of the Christians, and, no doubt, in less than 
another hour of hard fighting, they would have completely and gloriously 
defeated their opponents. This, however, was prevented by the sudden rising 
of a tempest, which scattered the Moslem fleet, and dashed their galleys to 
pieces on the rocks of a hostile shore. The Christian fleet sought and foind 
shelter in a friendly port. 

Leo then gave his whole attention to the defence and ornament of the 
Roman state. He renewed and embellished the churches ; rebuilt the walls 
of Horta and Ameria ; founded the city of Leopolis for the wandering inhabi- 
tants of Centumcellffi ; planted a colony of Corsicans in Porta, at the mouth of 
the Tiber ; and, in 852, he built and embellished the Vatican, giving it the 
name of the Leonine City* 

While the Saracenic pirates were thus harassing Italy and France, Eng- 
land was again infested by those of Scandinavia. On the death of Egbert, in 
836, he was succeeded in his kingdom of Wessex by his son Ethelwulf. The 
pirates, no longer restrained by the presence of Egbert, ravaged all the south- 
ern coast of Wessex and Kent ; they audaciously sailed up the Thames and 
the Medway ; and stormed and pillaged London, Rochester, and Canterbury. 
The idea of co-operation against a common enemy seems now, for the first 
time, to have entered the imagination of the Saxon princes. A league w^as 
formed between the Kings of Mercia and Wessex in 851. The King of 
Mercia was soon after defeated and slain ; but Ethelwulf gaine.l a complete 
victory over the Danes at Okeley, in Surry. Soon after Athelstane, Kin^; of 
Kent, defeated the pirates and captured nine of their ships; and Ceorn, with 
the men of Devon, defeated them at Wenbury. These severe checks induced 
the marauders to leave England quiet for a short time, while they turned their 
attention, as we have seen, towards France. Ethelwulf, in 853, visited Rome 
with his youngest son, Alfred, who was anointed and consecrated as king by 
the pope. On his return, he w^as compelled to divide his kingdom with his 
son Ethelbald ; but dying soon after, that prince succeeded to the whole 
kingdom. (A. D. 857.) 

Ethelbald reigned only two years, which seem to have been passed in 
peace and prosperity. He was succeeded, in the beginning of the year 860, 
by his brother Ethelhert, who had a short reign, troubled beyond measure by 
the Danes, who again made inroads in almost every part of the island. He 
had the mortification to see them barn his capital of Winchester, and perma- 
nently establish themselves in the Isle of Thanet. 

Ethelhert dying in 866 or 867, was succeeded by his brother Ethelred, 
who, it is said, in the course of one year fought nine pitched battles against 
the Danes. The King of Mercia withdrew from the league which had been 
formed in the time of Ethelwulf, and left the men of Wessex to maintain a 

* Gibbon. 



ALFRED. 167 

doubtful struggle, sometimes gaining and at others losing the victory. In 
many of these conflicts the youthful Alfred fought by the side of his brother, 
and at Aston, he sustained the brunt of the whole Danish force and mainly 
contributed to that splendid victory, while Ethelred would not permit his 
division of the army to move till mass was over. The victory of Aston was 
followed by the defeats of Basing and Mereton ; and soon afterward Ethelred 
died, and Alfred, the only surviving son of Ethelwulf, came to the throne. 
(A.D. 871.) 

Soon after JHfrecfs accession, his army was forced into a general 
engagement by a^ superior body of Danes at Wilton. After fighting with 
undaunted courage through a great part of the day, the Danes fled, but seeing 
the small numbers of their pursuers, they rallied and gained the field. Such 
was their loss, however, that they were glad to conclude a peace with Alfred, 
who was not present at the battle of Wilton, and evacuate his kingdom of 
Wessex. The invading army withdrew towards Mercia. They completely 
conquered that kingdom, and wintered in London. In 875, they conquered 
Northumbria and East Anglia, and from that time the contest lay between 
the Danes and Alfred's men of Wessex. In 876, Alfred constructed a small 
fleet, with which the enemy were kept at bay on the sea ; but their success 
on land continued. They surprised the castle of Wareham, in Wessex, and 
then concerted a combined attack on Alfred's forces in Devonshire. For this 
purpose, a Danish fleet sailed from the Thames ; but the infant Saxon navy 
stood ready to oppose it. A storm caused the wreck of at least half the 
Danish vessels, and when the others arrived tardily and in a shattered condi- 
tion, they were met by the Saxon fleet at the mouth of the Exe, and com- 
pletely destroyed, after a gallant action. Alfred had, in the mean time, come 
up with his land forces and invested Exeter, and Guthrun the Dane, who held 
that town, on hearing of the destruction of the fleet, capitulated and retired 
towards Mercia. He, however, took up his head-quarters at the city of Glou- 
cester, and in January 878, succeeded in surprising Alfred in Chippenham, 
while celebrating the feast of the Epiphany. It was with difficulty that the 
king, with a few followers, escaped. Several unfortunate battles followed in 
rapid succession, which ended in the entire defeat of Alfred and the conquest 
by the Danes of the whole of Wessex. Alfred, with a few faithful adherents, 
sought safety in Athelney, a place almost insulated by rivers and bogs, which 
they soon rendered impregnable. From that place they made predatoiy excur- 
sions on the Danes, and supported themselves by hunting and fishing. Somer- 
set still remained faithful to the king; and Hubba, a great Danish chieftain, 
being slain in Devonshire, and the standard of the raven captured, the people 
were encouraged and soon began to flock to Alfred's camp. Finding himself 
strong enough to extend his operations, Alfred, by a stratagem, made himself 
master of their plans and councils, and then despatching messengers in all 
directions, ordered his subjects to repair to his standard at Egbert's stone. 



168 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 




STANDARD OF THE RAVEN. 



The summons was gladly 
obeyerl, and in the battle which 
ensued at Ethandane, (878,) 
the Danes were taken by sur- 
prise, and thoroughly defeated. 
Guthrun retired to a fortified 
place, where, after a siege of 
fourteen days, he was obliged 
to surrender, agreeing to evacu- 
ate Wessex and embrace Chris- 
tianity. The Saxons, on their 
part, agreed to divide the land 
with the Danes. Guthrun was 
baptized and received the name 
of Athelstane. He kept his 
contract ; but other Danes, crossing from the continent, who were not bound 
by the treaty, continually made flying depredations on the territories of the 
Saxons.* 

The Danes and Normans, finding Alfred prepared to receive and repel 
them, turned their arms towards France and Germany, where the chiefs and 
people were embroiled among themselves. They established a permanent camp 
at the mouth of the Loire, whence they scoured the country in every direction. 
In 852, two hosts, at the same time ascended the Seine and the Loire and 
plundered and burnt Nantes, Anges, Tours, and Mons. The nobles finding 
but little safety in the towns and open country, now began to build castles 
for themselves, and the people to cluster around them for protection from the 
spoiler. In 855, Biorn, one of the most celebrated sea-kings, made a descent 
upon the coast of Normandy, but was attacked by Charles the Bald, and 
driven in confusion back to his vessels. In 856 and 857, they plundered 
Orleans and Chartres. Charles, now driven to desperation, sought to bribe 
one body of Normans to make war against another. They took the bribe ; but 
instead of opposing, they made a league with them, and both parties went together 
to the sack of Meaux. This proceeding aroused the whole nation ; they fell 
upon the Normans on their return from Meaux with all the fury of personal 
hate and revenge, and defeating them, compelled them to leave the country. 
They soon returned again, and compelled the weak king Charles to sign the 
most ignominious treaty ever entered into by any nation on the earth. He 
agreed to give to the victors as the price of peace, not only the amount of four 
thousand pounds weight of silver, but to restore to them all such French 
captives as should have escaped from bondage, or to redeem them at such a 
price as their masters should fix ; and to pay, in addition, a certain sum for 



* Pictorial Ensltuid. 



CHAllLES THE BALD. 171 

every Norman whom the French should have slain in battle during the recent 
encounters. Had it not been for one man, Count Robert the Strong, Governor 
of Anjou, France would have been reduced to a Norman province. He kept 
up the contest, carrying on a kind of partisan warfare, until he was killed in 
an engagement wuth them about the year 866. 

When the emperor Lothaire died, in 855, the crown of Italy passed to 
Louis, his eldest son. Lothaire left Provence to his third son Charles, whom 
Charles the Bald immediately began to take means to dispossess. He did not 
succeed, however, until after the death of Louis, when Lothaire of Lorraine, 
his successor, was excommunicated by the pope, and his dominions added to 
the French crown. 

On the death of Louis IL his nephew, without issue, in 875, Charles 
prevailed upon the pope John VIII. to place on his head the imperial crown 
as well as that of Lombardy. His brother, Louis of Germany, who being the 
elder had a better title to the imperial dignity, enfeebled by age and sickness, 
made no attempt to recover it. He died, however, in 876, having divided 
his kingdom among his three sons, Louis of Saxony, Carloman of Bavaria, and 
Charles, afterwards called le Gros, (the Fat). Charles the Bald, now growing 
proud of his many titles, determined to add that of King of Germany to the 
others. He invaded the territory of his nephews ; but at his encounter with 
them on the plains of Andernach, he was completely defeated, he flying from 
the field before the battle had well begun. 

From that time until his death, the emperor was continually harassed. 
On the side of the Rhine, he was menaced by his nephew, Louis of Saxony ; 
in France, Rollo, the most daring of the Normans, ravaged the country along 
the banks of the Seine ; in Italy he was harassed by Carloman, who advanc- 
ing with an army, the emperor fled, but was attacked by a fever in the hut 
of a peasant at the foot of Mount Cenis ; where, after lingering for eleven 
days, he died on the 6th of October, 877. 

Charles the Bald left only one son, Louis II. le Begue, (the Stammerer), 
France, only, fell to his lot ; Louis the Saxon, the eldest son of Louis the Ger- 
man, taking the title of Emperor and King of Italy. 

Louis II. no sooner ascended the throne, than the dukes of Aquitaine, 
Provence, and Anjou, revolted and aimed at forming distinct sovereign states. 
The king, who is represented as weak-minded, bewildered with the many 
cares which pressed upon him, seems to have lost all hope ; and while march- 
ing against his rebellious subjects, was attacked with a mortal sickness, of 
which he died, in 879, after a reign of only eighteen months. 

He was succeeded by his two sons, Louis III. and Carloman, who were 
raised to the throne, in conjunction, by the rebellious dukes. The Normans 
again troubling France, Louis marched against them at the head of a well- 
appointed army, met them at Saucourt, and defeated them, killing, it is said, 
nine thousand Normans. The victors were, however, chased off the field by 



172 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

the Normans during the same night. The invaders, however, not Uking the 
reception Louis had given them, retired to Germany where they took and 
pkmdered Aix-la-Chapelle. Louis IIL dying, in 882, Carloman was left sole 
sovereign of France ; and for the two years during which he reigned was 
constantly occupied in repelling the assaults of the Normans who had already 
returned. In 884, he was accidentally killed while engaged in a hunting party 
near Corbie. 

Charles le Gros, King of Germany, and Emperor of the West, the only 
surviving son of Louis the German, now succeeded to the vacant throne of 
France, and thus again, for an instant, restored the Empire of Charlemagne to 
its ancient limits.* 

We now return to the affairs of the Eastern Empire. Basil I. the Mace- 
donian, who usurped the throne of Constantinople, after murdering his master, 
Michael IIL, governed the empire with prudence, wisdom, and moderation. 
He renewed the old Roman spirit of enterprise, held the Saracens in check, 
suppressed a dangerous revolt of the Manicheeans, replenished the imperial 
treasury, improved and beautified his kingdom by the erection of many splendid 
churches and palaces, and made a complete revision of the laws of Justinian, 
suiting them to the wants and necessities of his times. He concluded an alliance 
with Louis of France, the great-grandson of Charlemagne, and in conjunction 
with him, laid siege to the Saracen fortress of Bari, which after an able defence 
of four years submitted to the arms of Louis, who commanded in person 
(A. D. 871). The Greeks profited from the reduction of Bari, which city in 
their possession soon rose to dignity and wealth. Soon after they extended 
their sway over Apulia and Calabria, and the dukes of Amalfi and Naples 
rejoiced in the near neighbourhood of their rightful sovereigns. The glorious 
reign of Basil I. was accidentally closed in 886. Hunting one day in the 
forest, he encountered a furious stag. The animal's horns became entangled in 
the emperor's belt and he was lifted from his horse. He was saved from 
immediate destruction by the presence of mind and courage of a servant, who 
cut his belt and killed the stag ; but the emperor being injured, it is sup- 
posed by the fall, a fever followed, which soon put a period to his existence. 

His son, Leo VI. the Philosopher, succeeded him, and was distinguished 
only for his effeminacy and his four marriages. By his last wife, Zoe, he 
became a father; and dying soon after, (911,) he left the empire to his son, 
Constantine VII. During the minority of the young prince, the sceptre was 
swayed in his name, first by his uncle Alexander, and afterwards by his 
mother Zoe, and a council of seven regents. These persons, however, all 
pursued their own interest, gratifying their passions without caring for the 
empire or the people entrusted to their government. Encouraged by the 
people, Romanus Lecapenus, in 919, usurped the regency, and is said to have 

* Pictorial France. Bonnechose. 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 



173 



aspired to the imperial power and title. His sons conspired against him and 
the emperor. Their plot was successful so far as it related to their father, 
but it was discovered by Constantine, who seized, degraded, and transported 
the conspirators to the same place in which they had confined their father. 
For fifteen years, during which he then filled the throne, Constantine gave 
himself up to intemperance and sloth ; neglecting even to instruct his son Ro- 
manus in the theory of government. His empress, Helena, may be said to 
have governed the eastern world, in his name, until his death, which took 
place in 959. 

His son and successor, Romanus II., was a weak prince, also governed 
by his wife Theophano. He spent the whole of his time in the circus, at the 
table, the tennis court, and the chase ; and in the fourth year of his inactive 
reign was poisoned by his wife. (A. D. 963.)* 




SIEGE OF PARIS. 



During the reign of Charles le Gros, the Normans again landed in France, 
and, calculating on the cowardice of the king, advanced to the very gates of 
Paris. Here, however, they were opposed by Eudes, Count of Paris, and his 

* Gibbon. 



174 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

brother Robert. They laid siege to the city in 885. The siege was long and 
terrible. It was more than twelve months before Charles advanced to the aid 
of the city ; and then, having arrived on the plain of St. Dennis, instead of 
offering battle to the enemy, he offered them seven thousand pounds weight 
of silver if they would raise the siege of Paris and retire to Burgundy, which, 
he said, would afford them a much richer harvest. The Normans agreed to 
his proposal, but Eudes refused to let them pass up the Seine through 
Paris. They, however, drew their vessels ashore below the city, launched 
them again at a safe distance above, and pursued their course, without further 
obstruction. A general diet was soon after convoked at Tribur, and for this 
act of imbecillity and cowardice, Charles was deposed, and his kingdom divided 
among eight of his nobles. He died unlamented a few weeks after his depo- 
sition (A. D, 887). Germany was already separated from the empire. Italy 
now became a distinct kingdom ; and the country lying between the Alps, the 
Jura, and the sources of the Rhine, was formed into a new kingdom, by Rodolph 
Welf or Guelf, under the title of Upper or Transjuran Burgundy ; Boson, the 
brother-in-law of Charles the Bald, formed the country between the Jura, the 
Mediterranean, and the Rhone, into a kingdom, and took the title of King of 
Provence or Cisjuran Burgundy. Aquitaine, another of these kingdoms, 
extended from the Loire to the Pyrenees ; between the Rhine, the Meuse, and 
the Saone, Reinier, Count of Hainault, formed the Duchy of Upper Lorraine ; 
and, finally, between the Loire and the Meuse lay enclosed the territory which 
bore the name of France. The historical existence of the French nation dates 
from this last dismemberment of the empire. Eudes, Count of Paris, and son 
of Robert the Strong, was elected King of France, to the exclusion of Charles, 
surnamed the Simple, the son of Louis the Stammerer. 

The youthful Charles, thus dispossessed of his rights, applied to Arnulph, 
King of Germany, for aid, and commenced the struggle, which terminated in 
the final rejection of the Carlovingian race. When Eudes died, in 898, 
Charles IV. the Simple, was acknowledged King of France. During his reign, 
Rollo, the celebrated Norman chief again pillaged the most fertile parts of 
the kingdom, and finally marched to Paris, and demanded the hand of the 
daughter of the king in marriage, and that Charles should confer on him the 
rank of a great feudatory, and give him and his followers the possession of a 
province of France. The feeble monarch dared not reject these terms, and 
merely stipulating that the Norman should embrace the Christian fiiith, and do 
fealty, according to the ancient Frankish usage, he gave him formal possession 
of the rebellious kingdom of Brittany, which thenceforth became the Duchy of 
Normandy, and Rollo was baptized under the name of Robert, and became 
nominally a liegeman of France. (A. D. 912.) An incident took place at the 
investiture of Rollo, which showed plainly the manner in which he intended to 
consider his suzerain. Rollo took both hands of the king in his own and 
swore obedience to him. So far things went on very well ; but, when told by 



ROLLO, DUKE OF NORMANDY. 



175 




TBEATY BETWEEN CHARLES VI. AND ROLLO. 



the officiating prelates to stoop and kiss the foot of the king, the stern war- 
rior indignantly refused, with an oath. He was at last prevailed upon to 
order one of his soldiers to perform the ceremony as his proxy ; but the 
veteran, instead of stooping, as he was directed, raised the foot of the 
king to his mouth in such a rude manner as to throw him to the ground. 
The French nobles, it is said, witnessed this scene with silent sorrow, while 
bursts of loud laughter, pealed from the Norman and his followers. Rollo 
divided his large territory into fiefs, and under the discipline of his severe laws, 
his followers became the fathers of a great people, who afterwards constituted 
the most powerful bulwark of France against German invasion. The close of 
the reign of Charles the Simple was disturbed by numerous rebellions. For 
upwards of sixty years a continual contest for the mastery was kept up 
between the houses of Charlemagne and Eudes. 

Robert, duke of France, the brother of Eudes, and his son, Hugh the 
Great, made fierce war against Charles, and was elected king in 920. Charles 



J76 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

fled to Lorraine, whither he was pursued by Robert. A battle ensued on the 
plain of St. Medard, in which Charles was aided by the Normans. Seeing 
that the battle was strongly contested, king Robert siezed his banner and 
spurring into the midst of the fight, dashed at Fulbert, his rival's standard- 
bearer. He, warned by Charles, avoided the blow aimed at him, and dealt 
his assailant one in return, which laid king Robert headless at his feet. The 
victory, however, remained with Hugh the Great, the son of Robert; and 
Charles fled to Germany. 

Hugh, not caring for the regal title caused his brother-in-law, Raoul, or 
Rodolph, Duke of Burgundy, to be proclaimed King of the French (A. D. 923.) 
Charles, soon after, lured by faithless promises, fell into the hands of Herbert, 
Count of Vermandois, by whom he was conducted a prisoner to Chateau 
Thierry, and shortly afterwards to the tower of Peronne, where he died in 929. 
His queen, Elgiva, escaped with her son Louis to the court of her brother Athel- 
stane, of England. Raoul, who possessed only the name of king, reigned seven 
years after the death of Charles, and then died without issue, leaving the kingdom 
of France again to the disposal of Hugh, Duke of France. 

He, again rejecting it for himself, the next year, 936, conferred it upon Louis 
IV., the son of Charles the Simple, who was surnamed d^Outremer, in consequence 
of his residence beyond the sea. Louis returned to France, accepted the crown, 
and reigned at first under the guidance and protection of Hugh the Great. Laon, 
of all the regal possessions, alone remained to the king of France ; and even this 
was solicited by Hugh. The king refused his request, and he was soon besieged 
by his too powerful vassal. He was only saved from deposition and disgrace by 
the timely succour of Otho the Great, who, in 936, had succeeded to the throne of 
Germany. When Otho retired, Louis was again at the mercy of Hugh. But the 
Duke of Normandy dying in 943, and leaving his possessions in the hands of a 
boy, Louis proposed to Hugh to unite against the Normans, depose the young 
Duke Richard, and divide Normandy between them. A battle was fought in 945, 
in which the French were completely defeated. Louis was taken prisoner and 
confined in Rouen with sixteen of his counts. He was ransomed by Hugh ; who, 
though he wished to humble Louis, was necessarily inimical to Norman ascend- 
ancy. Hugh repaid himself by taking possession of Laon. The king again 
appealed to the emperor Otho, who marched to his assistance, but failed in making 
any impression on the redoubtable Hugh. He, after the retirement of Otho, and 
in his own time, condescended to enter into a treaty with his sovereign, allowing 
him the name of king and the possession of Laon^ but retaining all substantial 
power in his own hands. Louis died in consequence of a fall from his horse, at 
Rheims, in 954. 

Louis d'Outremer was succeeded by Lothaire and Louis ; who are only 
remarkable as the last representatives of the house of Charlemagne. The 
monk Gerbert, whose brows were afterwards encircled by the tiara, as Pope 
Sylvester IL, placed himself at the head of the French clergy to direct the 



HUGH CAPET. 179 

movement which was to place the throne in the possession of the Capets. 
Speaking of Lothaire, he says: "He is only king by title; Hugh bears not 
the title, but he is king in fact and by his works :" and of Louis V. ; "He 
does nothing; is a charge to his friends; gives no uneasiness to his enemies, 
while his ruin is efficiently accomplished in secret." Hugh Capet had in- 
herited all the power of Hugh the Great, with a far larger share of ambition. 
He desired to add to the power the title of a king ; and though he permitted 
the reign of the princes whom Hugh the Great had supported, he determined 
to deprive their descendants of the succession. This important revolution was 
finally accomplished ; the dynasty of the Carlovingians yielded the throne to 
that of the Capetians ; and the change was made almost without opposition. 
Lothaire died in 986, and Louis V., surnamed Le Faineant, reigned but one 
year. He died childless ; but there were heirs to the crown. Charles, Duke 
of Bas-Lorraine, second son of Louis d'Outremer, and brother to Lothaire, 
had the legitimate right ; but it was rendered of no avail by Capet, who 
assembled his supporters, the principal nobles of the duchy of France, at 
Noyon ; and at the end of May, 987, was elected, or rather chosen, and 
acknowledged King of France. We know not the character of this assembly ; 
but it was probably governed by no precise rules. It was a spontaneous move- 
ment, as it were, an acclamation.* 

The archbishop of Rheims consecrated the new sovereign, and ratified, in 
the name of the Church, the choice of the French noblemen. Hugh Capet 
never forgot the obligations which he owed to the clergy. Raised to the 
throne by their support and protection, he never ceased to seek their appro- 
bation ; in his humility he refused to wear the crown, except on solemn occa- 
sions, and exercised the sovereignty with which he had been invested with 
the most prudent reserve. Though other chiefs possessed domains equal in 
extent to those of Hugh, there appears to have been no opposition to his 
election. The services of his father and grandfather had rendered him popu- 
lar ; and the feudal lords did not object to a king of recent origin whose 
accession to the throne did not increase his power. They w'itnessed, without 
a feeling of compassion, the overthrow of a race of kings from whom they 
had torn province after province of the kingdom, but whose concessions were, 
after all, revocable, and might be recovered, should an able prince succeed to 
the throne. The assembly of Noyon did not extend the real power of Hugh 
Capet ; it left him still Duke of France, but gave him a more comprehensive 
title, by means of which the Capetians were destined to consolidate the sove- 
reign power. 

Hugh was protected by the pride of those who had acknowledged him. 

* Cette election n'eut point lieu avec des formes regulieres; on ne s'avisani de recuelllir, 
ni de compter les rois des seigneurs, ce fut un coup d'entrainement, et Hiignes Capet devint 
roi des Frangais parceque sa popularite etait immense." — M. Avigustin Thierry — Lettres sur 
I'Histoire de France. 



180 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

The title which they had accorded him they considered unimportant ; they 
pretended to a complete equality of rank, and even of power with the suc- 
cessors of the Carlovingians. Arnold of Flanders, and Herbert of Verman- 
dois, were constrained by force of arms to recognise his new dignity ; 
Richard of Normandy did him homage, but required the same, in turn, from 
him ; and the Duke of Bretagne remained an entire stranger to the claims 
of the Capetian sovereignty. To secure the succession of his eldest son, 
Capet convoked the French nobles at Orleans, and caused Robert to be 
acknowledged his successor in advance. For two centuries the kings followed 
this example ; and by this policy at length rendered the French crown here- 
ditary. 

In the south they scarcely troubled themselves about him who had assumed 
the kingly title ; so small was his influence over the great fiefs situated south 
of the Loire. They knew not his name ; and after his election, the southern 
lords always inscribed at the head of their decrees ; " God reigning, expecting 
a king." Hugh Capet wished to try his power ; but he hardly succeeded in 
causing it to be acknowledged. Adalbert, Count of Perigord, joined with the 
Count of Anjou in besieging Tours, which belonged to Eudes, Count of Blois. 
Eudes sought help from Hugh Capet, who commanded Adalbert to raise the 
siege. The warlike noble despised the summons. Hugh sent and asked him, 
"Who made thee duke?" — "Who made thee king?" was the fierce response. 

The accession of the Capetian dynasty is one of the most important events 
in history. By it, royalty in France was rendered definitely national. It long 
remained weak, narrow in extent, dependant on the feudal lords, who remained 
masters of the soil ; but patience, time, great ability, and opportune modesty, 
united to courage and intelligence, prepared for it great destinies, and ended 
by assuming for it an incontestible superiority. It is regarded, by Thierry, as 
the end of the reign of the Franks, and the substitution of a national royalty 
for a government founded by conquest. From that time the history of France 
becomes simple : we constantly follow and recognise the same people, notwith- 
standing the changes which come over their manners and civilization.* A singu- 
lar presentiment of this long succession of kings seems to have seized the 
popular mind at the accession of the third race of kings. Tradition relates, 
that in 981, St. Valery, whose relics had just been removed by Hugh Capet, 
then Count of Paris, appeared in a dream to the future king, and said to 
him : " For what thou hast done, thou and thy children shall be kings to the 
seventh generation ; that is, for ever." These words were prophetic : for 900 
years the Capetians, constantly increasing in the midst of disasters, revolu- 
tions, attacks internal and external, occupied the throne without interruption, 
and gave kings to most of the nations of Europe.f 

In the east, we have already seen an army of Romans defeated by the 

* Letti-es sur I'Histoire de France. f Faits Memorables de I'Histoire de France. 



ALFRED THE GREAT. 181 

savage Bulgarians ; but this people, soon after that event, became somewhat 
civilized from their intercourse with the Greeks, and the introduction of Chris- 
tianity, and in 888 we find one of their royal princes, Simeon, studying, at 
Constantinople, the rhetoric of Demosthenes, and the logic of Aristotle. He, 
however, preferred the toils and dangers of a warrior's life to the tranquil pur- 
suits of a monk ; and the eastern emperors wishing to bring his kingdom under 
tribute, he declared war against them. The Greeks called in the aid of the 
Turks, and Simeon lost the first battle. He soon after, however, overthrew 
and dispersed the Servians ; defeated the Greeks on the banks of the Ache- 
lous ; laid siege to Constantinople ; and dictated terms of peace to the empe- 
ror. The treaty was sealed by a domestic alliance : the Bulgarians were 
honoured at court above all other foreigners, and their princes received the 
title of Basileus, or king. On the death of Simeon, however, in 950, his 
successors were divided ; and war broke out among themselves. The Greeks 
took advantage of their condition, and about the year 971 they were com- 
pletely conquered by Basil II., who cruelly deprived fifteen thousand captives 
of their sight, leaving only to one of each hundred a single eye, that he 
might conduct his hundred to the presence of their king ; who, it is said, 
died of grief and horror at the sight.* 

While some of the powerful nations of the earth were thus falling to ruins, 
England, under the reign of the great Alfred, was beginning to gather strength, 
and prepare for her future career of power and glory. Protected by his 
powerful name, they enjoyed, for upwards of six years, a season of peace 
and prosperity. At the end of that time, however, impelled by famine, the 
Danes, under their great leader, Hasting, again invaded England with a fleet 
of three hundred and thirty ships (893). They made two very strong camps ; 
one of them at Appledore, and the other at Milton. Guthrun the Faithful 
having been dead for three years, his followers, the settlers of the Danelagh, 
violated their oaths to Alfred, and, taking up arms against him, joined their 
marauding brethren. But the valour and vigilance of the great king was 
successfully exerted for the defence of his country ; the victories of Exeter, 
Benfleet, Buffington, and many other places, attest the bravery and generosity 
of the Saxon monarch ; and the pirate Hasting, utterly dispirited and driven 
into the narrow walls of Quatbridge, disbanded his army, giving them permis- 
sion to return with him to France, or to take any course that they pleased 
(897). Some settled in the Danelagh ; others sailed for the Scheldt, and the 
mouth of the Rhine ; while a few departed with Hasting for the continent, 
and settled in Normandy. 

Alfred now paid great attention to the increase and enlargement of his 
small navy ; to the encouragement of letters ; the revival of learning, and the 
improvement of the laws of his kingdom. The Danes of Northumbria fitted 

* Gibbon. 



182 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS, 




ARMS, DRESS AND SHIP OF THE SAXONE 



out some vessels, and sailed on a piratical cruise along the coast. They were 
encountered by the English ships ; captured, condemned, and ordered to be 
hanged as rebels and pirates by Alfred. This king, well deserving the name 
of Great, died at Oxford, on the 25th of October, 900, greatly beloved and 
lamented by his subjects. " His merit," says an able historian,* " both in 
public and private life, may be set in opposition to that of any sovereign or 
citizen of ancient and modern times." In the language of Hume, " He seems 
to be the complete model of that perfect character, which, under the denomi- 
nation of a sage, or truly wise man, philosophers have been so fond of deline- 
ating, without the hopes of ever seeing it realized." 

From the death of Alfred until the reign of Canute, the history of England 
offers few points worthy of the attention of the general reader. Civilization, 
science, and the arts, rather declined than advanced : the great ideas of Alfred 
appear to have perished with himself, and the emulator of Charlemagne 
proved as unsuccessful as his prototype. England had now nothing to dread 

* Russell. 



EDWY AND ELGIVA. 183 

from the Norman Scandinavians ; but the Danes, who had become naturahzed 
on the Enghsh soil, frequently disturbed the country by taking up arms in 
favour of different pretenders and caused great irregularity in the royal suc- 
cession. Public order was also troubled by the ambition of the monks, who, 
ingratiating themselves in public affairs, were on the point of abolishing alto- 
gether the secular clergy of the kingdom. The reigns of Edward the Elder, 
the son of Alfred, and of his successors, Athelstan, 925, Edmund, 941, and 
Edred, 946, were tumultuous and anarchical. Edward was remarkable for his 
large share of the miUtary talents which distinguished his father ; Athelstan 
inherited the wisdom and liberahty of the great Alfred. His able and active 
reign is rendered memorable by the law for the encouragement of commerce, 
that a merchant who had made two voyages on his own account, to distant 
lands, should be admitted to the rank of a lesser thane or gentleman. 

Edmund's reign was short, and his death violent. A robber, named Leof, 
whom he had sentenced to banishment, impudently entered the banqueting-hall, and 
seated himself at the table where the king was dining. He ordered him to be 
expelled from the room ; but, observing that the robber was preparing to resist, 
the king sprung up and caught him by the hair. A scuffle ensued, in the 
course of which Leof stabbed the king with a dagger which he carried under 
his cloak. The villain was cut to pieces by the servants of the household. 
Edmund died of his wound, and was buried in Glastonbury Abbey (946). 

Edred, who succeeded his brother Edmund at the age of twenty-two 
(A. D. 946), was afflicted with severe bodily infirmity. According to some 
writers, his mind was as feeble as his body ; and the vigour that marked his 
reign is ascribed to the energy of Dunstan, the Abbot of Glastonbury, who 
now began to figure as a statesman, and of Torketul, another churchman, who 
was chancellor of the kingdom. Other writers, however, affirm that Edred 
was resolute and vigorous in mind, notwithstanding his bodily weakness. 
During his reign, the Danes in England, humbled and apparently crushed, w^re 
compelled to pay a heavy pecuniary fine, and Northumbria was incorporated 
with the rest of the kingdom. Edred died childless, and was succeeded by his 
nephew, Edwy, (A. D. 95f5), whose reign was signalized by his quarrel with 
Dunstan. Edwy married Elgiva, who was his second or third cousin, and 
consequently related to him in a degree within which the canonical laws for- 
bid such unions. The extremities to which Dunstan proceeded were probably 
occasioned less by this circumstance than by the king's opposition to the celibacy 
of the clergy, which the abbot was earnest in advocating. On the day o^ his 
coronation, Edwy left the hall where the nobles were drinking to excess, for 
the company of his wife ; his absence being noticed, Dunstan rushed into the 
king's apartment, addressed the most brutal language to the queen and her 
mother, dragged the young king from the side of his wife, and thrust him back 
into the banqueting-room by main force.* 

* Pifloiial Hiskny of England. 



184 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

Such a proceeding could not fail to be followed by severe retaliation, 
and Dunstan was soon after called upon to render an account of the moneys 
with which he had been entrusted during the preceding reign. On his refusal, 
the king confiscated his property, took his court places from him, and banished 
him from the kingdom. This aroused the ire and party spirit of Odo, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, who immediately pronounced a divorce between Edwy 
and Elgiva, and recalled Dunstan. Some of the archbishop's armed retainers 
then entered the residence of the king, tore thence the queen, branded her in 
the face with a red-hot iron, to destroy her beauty, and then carried her to 
Ireland. There her wounds were soon healed ; the scars were obliterated ; and, 
as radiant in her beauty as ever, she escaped to England, and rejoined her 
husband. On the road, however, she was taken prisoner by a party of Odo's 
retainers, who cut the sinews of her limbs, and barbarously mangled her body, 
so that she expired a few days after, in great pain. 

The infamous Odo, in the meantime, had incited the king's own brother, 
to whose are Mercia had been intrusted, to open rebellion, while he aroused 
the Danes of Northumbria, his kinsmen.* Edwy, however, died in 958, the 
year after the death of his wife. Some say that he died of a broken heart ; 
others assert that he was assassinated by his enemies. 

Edgar, his brother, succeeded him, and affected to be governed, in all his 
actions, by the monks ; to whom, it may be said, he owed the throne. He 
obtained his second wife, the beautiful, but wicked Elfrida, by the murder 
of her husband, his former favourite. Little, worthy of notice, is related of 
this monarch. His kingdom was at peace, and he increased his navy to 360 
sail. He died in A. D. 975, and was succeeded by Edward, the son of his 
first wife. 

Edward, surnaraed the Martyr, was made king by the monks. He, or 
rather, the monks, reigned in peace for four years. As he was hunting one 
day, near Corfe Castle, where Elfrida his mother-in-law resided, he quitted 
his company and attendants to visit his half-brother. Elfrida came out to the 
gate to meet him ; and he desired a drink to be brought to him, as he was 
thirsty. She gave him a cup of wine ; but, as he w^as carrying it to his hps, 
one of her attendants stabbed him in the back. The wounded king put spurs 
to his horse, but soon fainting from loss of blood, he fell out of the saddle, 
and was dragged, by one foot in the stirrup, through the woods and rugged 
ways, until he was dead. His corpse was found and burned, and the ashes 
interred at Wareham, without any pomp or regal ceremony. 

Ethelred II., surnamed the Unready, the son of the murderess, succeeded 
his half-brother on the throne (979). In 981, the Danes, under Sweyn, made 
their appearance on the British coast, and Ethelred, who seems to have been 
too much occupied with quarrels with his bishops, to pay any attention to the 

* The archbishop was a Dane. 



CANUTE. 185 

invasion, permitted them to plunder, to land, and to mingle with his subjects. He, 
in the meantime, married Emma, the daughter of Richard Duke of Normandy. 
The Danes had now, for upwards of fifteen years, been absolute masters in 
the land, insulting the women, and ordering the Saxon men to do the work 
of beasts. Ethelred, weak and irresolute, could think of no way of ridding 
his country of the enemy, but by a general massacre. He accordingly made 
the necessary preparations, and carried on the plot so secretly, that it fully 
succeeded ; and all the Danes in England were destroyed in one day (Nov. 
13th, 1002). 

This only brought Sweyn back from Denmark, with a host far outnumber- 
ing any that had hitherto appeared on the coast of England. They landed 
towards the end of the year 1002, and kept up an incessant warfare until 
January, 1013, when Ethelred fled to Normandy, and Sweyn was acknowledged 
king of all England. He died suddenly, about six weeks afterwards, and Ethel- 
red was recalled by the Saxon nobles, who pledged themselves to his defence 
and support, stipulating, however, for certain reforms in the government. He 
was immediately opposed by Canute, the son of Sweyn, and was fast losing 
ground, when he died of a disease, about the year 1016. 

His successor, Edmund Ironside, carried on the contest with Canute with 
great obstinacy and valour. Battle followed battle, and the Saxon king worked 
wonders ; but as the Danes were gaining the advantage, he proposed to Canute 
to settle the dispute by single combat ; but the Danish king, who was lightly 
framed, declined this proposition, and, in his turn, proposed to divide the king- 
dom. This w^as gladly accepted ; the Saxons obtained all south of the Thames, 
while the Danes took the north. Edmund was murdered about a month after 
this treaty ; some say by order of Canute ; while others assert that it was 
done by his own two chamberlains. His death took place at Oxford ; and 
Canute took peaceable possession of the kingdom (1017). 

Canute governed his subjects, for nineteen years, with moderation and 
justice ; when, dying, he left the throne to his second son, Harold. To his 
other sons, Sweyn and Hardicanute, he gave Norway and Denmark. 

Harold secured for himself the love of his English subjects ; but his 
brother, Hardicanute, who succeeded him at the end of two years, so alienated 
their affections by his violent and unjust proceedings, that on his death, in 1041, 
the people were once more induced to place upon the throne, Edward, sur- 
named the Confessor, a monarch of the old Saxon line. 

Wholly occupied, during his long reign, with visions of superstition, Ed- 
ward conferred the chief ecclesiastical dignities of the kingdom on foreigners, 
especially Normans, for whom he had a strong predilection. He carried his 
love to the Normans so far as to nominate, although he had no right to do 
so, William, the natural son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, as his successor. 
Upon the death of Edward, in 1066, Harold, the son of Godwin, Earl of Kent, 
was elected king by the English nobles and people. William immediately 
Vol. it. 24 



186 



CHARLEMAGNE AND IIIS SUCCESSORS. 




LANDINO or -WILLIAM THE COMQUSROR 



claimed the crown as the heir of Edward the Confessor, and he endeavoured 
to strengthen his pretensions with an oath, extorted from Harold when ship- 
wrecked on the coast of France, by which he promised never to aspire to the 
English crown, and to support William in obtaining it. But Harold announced 
to the ambassadors of the ambitious Norman, his determination to maintain, 
with his arms and his life, the national liberties with which he had been en- 
trusted. The pope was induced to support the claim of the Norman ; he 
denounced Harold as a perjured usurper ; excommunicated him and his adhe- 
rents, and sent to William a consecrated banner, and a ring, with one of St. 
Peter's hairs in it. With these tokens of ecclesiastical favour, and sixty thousand 
followers, William quickly Ibund himself at Pevensey, in Sussex, where a disem- 
barkation was effected. The duke had the misfortune to fall, as he leaped 
ashore, a circumstance which his superstitious followers might have construed 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 187 

into an omen of ill, but for his presence of mind. Gathering a handful of 
earth, he held it up to his attendants, and exclaimed, " I have taken possession 
of England !" and a soldier running to a neighbouring cottage, plucked some 
thatch, which he presented to his lord, as giving him seisin of the kingdom. 
Such was the confidence of William and his followers in their success. 

Relying on the justice of his cause, and the bravery of his troops, who 
had just gained a great victory over a powerful army of Norwegian invaders, 
Harold hastened to decide the possession of the kingdom. Coming by forced 
marches from York, he found that the enemy had pitched his camp at Hastings. 
His brother, Gurth, a brave and politic leader, advised him not to give battle 
with his inferior forces, but rather to prolong the war to the winter, when 
the Normans would suffer from its severity, while the English, better sheltered, 
and incensed at the rapine which must necessarily follow in the train of the 
invaders, would crowd to his standard, and render him invincible. He also 
represented the impropriety, if the king was determined to hazard a battle, 
of exposing the royal person, that no resource might be left for the liberty 
of the kingdom. Harold, however, elated with prosperity, and fearless of the 
result, determined " to give battle in person, and convince his subjects that he 
was worthy of the crown which they had set on his head." He therefore 
drew near to the Normans, and two or three vaunting messages passed be- 
tween the rivals. The approach of night prevented the troops from engaging, 
on the first day ; and the appearance of the dawn was impatiently awaited, 
by the Normans, in prayer and preparations for battle ; by the English, in 
riot and feasting. 

Harold had taken possession of a rising ground, and drawn trenches to 
secure his flanks, that, as the Norman cavalry was far superior to his own, 
he might act on the defensive. The brave Kentish men claimed the front 
rank as their due ; while the standard was defended by the Londoners ; the 
king himself fighting on foot in the centre, at the head of his infantry. The 
first attack of the Norman foot, made under cover of the clouds of arrows 
shot from the bows of their archers, was terrible ; but the English lost not 
an inch of ground ; and, after a furious struggle, the Normans began to fall 
into confusion. The hopes of William were on the brink of ruin ; but his 
good conduct restored the battle. He hastened, at the head of a select band, 
to the scene of disorder, and the English were, in turn, obliged to give way ; 
but they rallied round the standard of the undaunted Harold, and renewed 
the fight. The duke then instructed his followers to make a hasty retreat, 
that they might draw the English from their station. The stratagem succeeded. 
The English advanced in pursuit, until they reached the plain, when the flying 
infantry faced about, and attacked them in front ; and the Norman cavalry 
charged their wings. They were thrown into disorder, and retreated again to 
the hill, where the able Harold rallied them, and they renewed the combat. 
Again the Normans tried the same stratagem, and with similar success. A 



188 



CHARLEMAGiNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 




OF HASTINGS. 



large body of the English always remained firm around the standard of their 
prince, determined to support him in his purpose of gaining a victory or losing 
his life. Hitherto the chances of success appeared equal, and the approach 
of night seemed about to put an end to the combat, without deciding it, when 
the brave Harold, who had fought continually from dawn till eve, was shot in 
the brain with an arrow, while at the head of his guards, he preserved his 
standard from the attacks of the foe. His two gallant brothers, Gurth and 
Leofrom, were also slain ; and, destitute of leaders, and weary of the combat, 
the English gave way, and fled on all sides, pursued with great slaughter by 
the victorious Normans. Fifteen thousand of the Normans fell, and a greater 
number of the English. The fate of the kingdom depended upon this battle ; 
and the obstinacy with which it was contested, and the valiant feats performed 
by the leaders, prove it to have been worthy of deciding the possession of 
such a prize. William, having destroyed his rival, found little difficulty in 
gaining possession of the whole kingdom. Destitute of a head, the English 
were unable effectually to rise in defence of their liberties ; the pope's bull 
afforded a reason for submission, and there were not wanting those among 
the most powerful, who represented the inconveniences of submitting to William 
as less dreadful than those of the war and bloodshed which resistance would 
occasion. 

William was crowned in London, taking the oath usually administered to 
the Anglo-Saxon kings, and, at a grand assembly of the nobles, promised to 



WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 189 

his new subjects the observance of their national laws. He treated the rightful 
king, Edgar Atheling, with all the attention due to the nephew of Edward 
the Confessor, and seemed desirous to have everything rest upon its old foun- 
dations ; so that the English began to have little concern for his actions ; 
thinking, that as long as the form of government was unchanged, the altera- 
tion in the succession of sovereigns was unimportant. Yet he very soon showed 
that he intended to place all real power in the hands of Normans ; and though 
his civil administration seemed to be that of a legal magistrate, tyranny charac- 
terized his military institutions. 

He ventured to visit Normandy six months after he left it ; but he was 
compelled to return to England by the popular discontents, which speedily broke 
out into formidable rebellion. But the vigorous exertions of William quickly 
suppressed it. He now commenced an open and unjust course of confiscations, 
the consequence of which was the self exile of many eminent Englishmen, who 
were ever afterwards ready to join in an invasion of the country, which they 
might otherwise have fought to defend. Among these was Edgar Atheling, 
who took refuge in Scotland, and afterwards returned at the head of a Scottish 
force, to act against the Normans ; but his attempts failed, with many others, 
and he again submitted to the conqueror, and afterwards lived peaceably in 
England. 

While thus he strengthened himself by making Normans the landholders 
of England, the duchy of Normandy received an accession by the will of 
Herbert, the last Count of Maine, who made William the heir of his dominions. 
His son Robert now began openly to aspire to dominion over Normandy and 
Maine ; but William refused his request, remarking, that he never threw off 
his clothes till he went to bed. War ensued, and the father brought over an 
army of Englishmen to expel the son. The King of France furnished Robert 
with the Castle of Gerberoy, in the Beauvoisin. Here he gallantly defended 
himself, when besieged by the king, and many combats occurred under its w^alls, 
resembUng the conflicts of a tournament rather than those of ordinary war. 
In one of these, Robert encountered the king ; and a fierce combat between 
them ended in William's being wounded in the arm, and thrown from his 
horse. He called for help, when the prince recognised his voice ; and, struck 
with remorse, and a sense of his guilt, he threw himself at his father's feet, 
and craved pardon for his offences, with promises of future good conduct. 
William was too resentful to allow of a perfect reconciliation, at that time ; 
but it was afterwards effected by the queen and mutual friends. 

A remark made by Philip of France, concerning William, while he lay 
sick in Normandy, so roused the anger of that king, that he declared war ; 
and, on his recovery, led an army into France, laying waste everything with 
fire and sword. But an accident closed the hostdities, by putting an end to 
the monarch's life. His horse suddenly starting aside, the pummel of the 
saddle bruised his body ; in consequence of his corpulence, the contusion brought 



190 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 




■WILLIAM THE C O N Q U E E O K PROMISING TO OBSEBVS THE LATVS OF ENGLAND. 



on a mortification, of which he died, in the sixty-third year of his age. He 
left Normandy and Maine to his eldest son, Robert ; the crown of England, to 
William ; and to Henry he bequeathed the possessions of his mother Matilda. 
" His character," says an able historian, " may be deduced from his deeds. 
No prince of the time equalled him, either as a general or a politician ; and 
he surpassed them all in the difficult art of bending men's wills, and achieving 
great things with a turbulent nobility intractable to every one else. His own 
temper was naturally fiery ; and, when he had nothing to gain by di.ssimula- 
tion, or to fear from those he had insulted, he gave the reins to his passion, 
and completely forgot that dignity and majesty of demeanour, which was in 
part innate, but still more assumed, to impose upon the herd." One of the 
writers of the Saxon chronicle, who says " he looked on him, and somewhat 
lived in his herd," describes him as being a very stern man, and so hot and 
passionate that no man durst gainsay his will ; as one who took money by 
right and unright, falling into great avarice, and loving greediness withal, not 
recking how sinfully his officers got money of poor men, or how many unlawful 
things they did. He was, however, religiously inclined, after the fashion of 
his age ; and whatever might be the schemes of ambition, or the butcheries in 



ITALY AND GERMANY. jgj 

which he was engaged, he never failed to hear the mass of his private chaplain 
in the morning, or to say his prayers at night. 

While these changes of dynasty were taking place in France and Eng- 
land, Italy and Germany seem to have followed in their footsteps— Italy, It 
may be, in the downward course of France ; but Germany was beginning to 
gather strength, as we have seen England do, notwithstanding her many 
revolutions. In Italy, whoever at this period approached the walls of Rome 
with an army, was crowned emperor of the west. Thus Guy Duke of Spo- 
leto, was raised to the imperial throne in 891 ; and on his death, three years 
afterwards, he was in the same way succeeded by Lambert. Meanwhile in 
Germany Charles the Fat was succeeded in 887 by Arnulph, son of his 
brother, Carloman. This active prince defeated the Normans at Louvaine, in 
the Netherlands, and then marched against Rome. There his army was so 
much weakened by the pestilential influence of the climate, that he was on the 
point of retreating to Germany, when the Romans commenced hooting and 
taunting him from their walls. This filled the German soldiers with I'ury ; 
and without waiting for orders they turned back, filled the ditches, stormed 
the gates, scaled the walls, and took the city (896). Arnulph was, according 
to the custom of the time, crowned emperor. He returned to Germany, where 
he died in 899 ; whether from the effects of the pestilence in Italy, or from 
poison, is still a matter of dispute among historians. He was succeeded on 
the throne of Germany by his son, Louis the Child. During the reign of 
Louis, Germany was annually devastated by the Hungarians, who, by sud- 
denly precipitating themselves in masses upon one or other of the different and 
separate provinces, surprised the people, killed and burned whatever fell in 
their way, and drove many of the inhabitants back before them as slaves. 
The Germans, as yet, had no walled towns; and it was impossible for them 
to defend themselves from these barbarians, in their scattered and indefensible 
habitations. Louis, the last of the Carlovingian line in Germany, however, 
fortunately for the kingdom, died in the year 911. The nobles, some of whom 
had already become powerful and erected for themselves dukedoms, imme- 
diately assembled and offered the crown to Otho the Illustrious, Duke of 
Saxony and Thuringia ; and thus originated the custom of electing the rulers 
of Germany. He, however, not wishing to take upon himself the cares of 
such a kingdom, declined the honour and recommended to their choice Conrad, 
Duke of Franconia. Conrad I. was therefore elected king in November 911. 
During his reign, many revolts happened among the slightly-connected States : 
but, by timely concessions to some, and energetic measures towards others, 
Conrad succeeded in maintaining the national unity and in re-establishing 
tranquillity. On his death, in 918, the States, at his desire, elected as his 
successor, Henry Duke of Saxony and Thuringia. 

Henry I., surnamed the Fowler, reigned over Germany eighteen years. 
In the first two years of his reign he reduced the dukes of Suabia and Bava- 



192 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

ria, who refused to do him homage, and conquered the province of Lorraine, 
which had hitherto wavered between France and Germany. He then turned 
his arms against the Slavonians and the Hungarians, who had made continual 
predatory incursions into his territory. He captured one of the Hungarian 
princes, and, for his ransom, and the promise of tribute, he negotiated a peace, 
or rather a truce, of nine years. The Slavonians were defeated at Brandenburg, 
in 928 ; and the next year a great battle was fought with them near Lenzen, 
in which they w^ere almost annihilated, and finally subjected to the Germans. 
In the same year, Henry added Bohemia to his other possessions. 

When the nine years' truce was fulfilled, the Hungarians invaded Ger- 
many in two great divisions. One of them entering the kingdom by the way 
of Thuringia, was attacked and completely annihilated. The other laid siege 
to Meresburg, on the eastern side. The king, who had well improved the 
nine years in training and disciplining his army for the expected invasion, met 
them near Meresburg, where he gained a complete victory, capturing or 
destroying nearly the whole of the enemy (934).* For this great victory, 
Henry, on the field of battle, fell down on his knees, and thanked God ; and 
his whole army followed his example. From that time he was called " the 
father of his country," and " emperor." By this victory Germany was relieved 
from the disgraceful tribute W'hich they had been compelled to pay the barba- 
rians. Henry was the instituter of chivalry, the reformer of the nobles, the 
founder of cities and citizenship, and the promoter of civilization. He died in 
the year 936, and his son Otho was elected to succeed him. 

The reign of Otho I, the Great, was disturbed by domestic insurrections, 
which he could with difficulty overcome. Meanwhile, circumstances had 
occurred in Italy, which caused Otho to look w^ith longing eyes towards that 
country. Ever since the extinction of the Carlovingian branch, says Kohl- 
rausch, numerous pretenders to its dominion had started up, scattering disorder 
and destruction throughout that beautiful land ; in addition to which, bands 
of plundering strangers had either taken up their quarters, or made continual 
incursions throughout the country. Here and there the Saracens w^ere found 
regularly housed among the rocks of the sea-coast, while the hordes of the 
Hungarians, or Magyars, frequently overran the rich and fertile plains of Upper 
Italy. In the south of Italy, the dominion of the Greek emperors, to which 
Naples had lately been added, still maintained itself, and extended almost to 
Rome, and their mercenaries were a scourge to the land.t In Upper Italy, 
when Arnulph was crowned Emperor, Berenger Duke of Fruili, took the title 
of King of Italy. He was deposed, in 900, by Louis, Duke of Aries ; but in 
905 he recovered his throne, and in 915 caused himself to be crowned emperor, 
by Pope John X. In 922 he was defeated in the battle of Placentia, by 
Rodolph, king of Burgundy, who, in 926, left the kingdom of Italy to Hugh 

* Blair. I History of Germany. 



OTHO THE GREAT. 193 

of Provence. He reigned nineteen years, and was succeeded by Lothaire, the 
last king of the Burgundian race, who, dying in the year 950, Berenger II. 
took forcible possession of the crown. Adelaide, the widow of Lothaire, sup- 
ported by the pope, supplicated the aid of Otho. This was what Otho so 
long wished for ; he crossed the Alps in 951 ; captured several of the largest 
Italian cities ; completely reduced Berenger and married Adelaide. Berenger 
consented to hold Lombardy as a fief of the king of Germany, and Otho re- 
crossed the Alps. On his return to Germany his eldest son rebelled against 
him, and succeeded in drawing into the conspiracy several of the princes of 
the empire. Otho, however, soon subdued them and pardoned his son. 

In 955 the Huns, more numerous than ever, again invaded Germany ; 
but were completely defeated by Otho, at the bloody battle of Augsburg ; 
when, it is said, nearly 60,000 men of the barbarians perished. In the same 
year another victory was obtained over the Slavonians. Complaints now 
reached Otho of the tyranny of Berenger, who had rebelled against his au- 
thority ; and he again crossed the Alps to chastise him. He led such an army 
into Italy, that Berenger fled, and every city opened its gates and hailed him 
as a deliverer. He was crowned king of Italy in November, 961 ; and, 
proceeding directly ^o Rome, he was crowned emperor of the west by Pope 
John XII., in February, 962. Thus were Italy and Germany again united 
under one emperor. The pope, being charged by the Roman clergy and people 
with many crimes which ill became the head of the church, he was repri- 
manded by Otho ; and consequently, while the emperor was absent in pursuit 
of Berenger, the pope recalled Adelbert, the son of Berenger, to oppose him 
to the German emperor ; and it is even said that he entered into a plot to 
expel the Germans from Italy. Otho returned to Rome and convoked an 
ecclesiastical council, by which John was deposed and Leo VIII. chosen in 
his stead. During the remainder of his reign the empire was continually 
harassed by insurrections ; but his presence was all that was necessary to 
subdue them. Having procured the election of his son Otho II. to be his 
successor, and his marriage with Theophania, daughter of Nicephorus, emperor 
of the East, Otho I. died at Memleben, A. D. 973. 

Otho II. surnamed the Bloody, proud, violent, and unequal in his con- 
duct, continually drew Germany and Italy into bloody wars. It was in his 
reign that Lothaire of France advanced to Aix-la-Chapelle, and took possession 
of Lorraine.* In a treaty of peace subsequently concluded, Lorraine was re- 
stored to Germany. In 977 Otho conquered Bohemia and re-annexed it to 
his empire. He then claimed Apulia and Calabria, in the south of Italy, as 
the dowry of his wife Theophania, and set out with a large army to take 
possession of them. The Greeks, however, refused to give them up ; and 
calling to their aid the Saracens and Arabs of Sicily and Africa, defeated Otho 

* See ante, pp. 63 — 64. 
Vol. II. 25 



194 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 



in a decisive battle fought in Calabria in July, 982. He returned to the north 
of Italy to collect another army ; but was attacked by a raging fever, of 
which he died in December, 983, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. 

His son Otho HI. was elected and crowned emperor of Germany and 
Italy at the age of twelve years. His mother, however, the Empress Theo- 
phania, governed wisely in his name. Disturbances broke out in Lorraine, 
Bavaria, and Italy. They were soon quieted by the wisdom and activity of 
Theophania. She, however, died in 991, leaving the young king under the 
care of Bernward, afterwards bishop of Hildesheim. In Rome Crescentius, a 
Patrician, again raised the standard of revolt and banished Pope Gregory V. 
Otho marched against him, reinstated the pope, besieged Crescentius in Engles- 
burg, which he took by storm and executed the rebel in the sight of his army 
(979). 

Otho III. died in 1002, and the princes elected to the vacant throne 
Henry II. the Lame, Duke of Bavaria. He reigned for twenty-two years. 
During that time he was so much harassed by repeated insurrections both in 
Italy and Germany, that he seriously designed to abdicate and retire to a 
monastery, when he was carried off by death, A. D. 1024. He was the last 
of the Saxon dynasty, which, like that of the Carlovingians, had commenced 
vigorously, but ended with very little strength.* 

\ CONRAD II. Count of Franconia being 

chosen by the electors, impoverished the 
empire by his unwise liberality. During 
his reign and that of his son and successor 
Henry III., Italy was distracted by the 
domestic wars of rival factions ; but the 
imperial authority was firmly supported by 
Henry. He deposed three popes and gave 
the pontifical chair to a German, Clement 
II., and then exacted an oath from the 
Romans that they would never elect a 
pope without first consulting the emperor. 
Henry IV. succeeded his father at the 
tender age of five years ; and the papal 
power taking advantage of his long mino- 
rity, gradually recovered its influence over 
the empire.f 
During the reign of the Emperor Romanus the Second, his general, Nice- 
phorus Phocas, after a siege of seven months, reduced and took possession of 
Candia, and with it of the whole island of Crete (960). This was the begin- 
ning of the downfall of the Saracenic empire. Nicephorus was rewarded, in 




* Turner — KolJiausch — Dcf? Michcls— Gibbon — Blair. 



t Taylor. 



AFFAIRS OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. I95 

963, with the imperial diadem and the hand of Theophano, the empress and 
the murderess of her husband Romanus II. The new emperor was ambitious, 
hypocritical, avaricious, and deformed ; but he was a brave warrior, the de- 
scendant of a race illustrious by their military exploits, and had just returned 
crowned with the laurels of victory from Crete. He assumed the imperial 
power with the title of Nicephorus II., without degrading the infant sons of 
Romanus. He had the honour of again vanquishing the Saracens, and took 
from them Antioch and several other places. His avarice and tyranny, how- 
ever, made him detested ; his own wife joined in a conspiracy against him 
and he was murdered in bed. 

John Zimisces, an Armenian noble and one of the assassins, seized the 
empire. A brave and warlike prince, he succeeded in delivering it from the 
Russians, whom he defeated in many engagements. In consequence of this 
success, the victorious Zimisces was received with triumphal honours, on his 
return to his capital, and hailed as the saviour of the empire and the conqueror 
of the East. But his chamberlain poisoned him, and the throne came into the 
possession of Basil II., the grandson of Porphyro-genitus, A. D. 976. During 
his long reign of nearly half a century, Basil the Second subdued the insur- 
rection of his generals Phocas and Sclerus, made several expeditions against 
the Saracens, and finally destroyed the kingdom of Bulgaria. After his death, 
in A. D. 1025, his brother, Constantine IX., enjoyed the pleasures of power 
for three years longer, when he also died, the last of the Macedonian dynasty, 
on the 12th of November, 1028.* His death was followed by a series of 
the blackest crimes known to history. His daughter Zoe married Romanus 
Argyropulus, who was proclaimed emperor. Becoming enamoured of Michael 
Paphlagonotus, she gave poison to Romanus and then drowned him in a bath. 
The conscience of the patriarch of Constantinople was quieted with gold, and 
he conferred on Michael the hand of the murderess and the crown, 1034. 
Paphlagonotus died of remorse, and the queen married and raised to the throne 
Michael Calaphates, the son of a ship-caulker. Refusing to be a slave to her 
will, he was punished by the loss of the crown and of his eyes. After a 
year, Zoe married Constantine Monomachus, 1042, whose cruelty and tyranny 
were only equalled by his avarice. 

In 1057 Isaac Comnenus was proclaimed emperor ; he applied the abun- 
dant revenues of the monks to the defence of the empire, and became, in con- 
sequence, hated by them. Lamed by a fall from his horse, he resigned the 
crown to Constantine Ducas and entered upon the duties of a monastic life, 
1059. Ducas gave up the provinces to the ravages of the Turks. He made 
his three sons emperors and left the regency to their mother, exacting from 
her a promise that she would never marry. But she became enamoured of 

* Russell — Taylor — Gibbon. 



196 CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCSSEORS. 

R-omanus Diogenes, who had been condemned to suffer death as a public male- 
factor, violated her pledge, and raised him to the empire. 

In the early part of the eleventh century occurred a revolution in the 
south of Europe which put an end to the petty wars which the Greeks, 
the Saracens, and the Lombards had waged for the possession of Southern 
Italy during the greater part of a century. This occurrence, the establishment 
of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the Normans, resulted from the custom 
of visiting holy places ; in which this warlike people indulged both their ancient 
ardour for strange and perilous enterprises and their devotion to a new faith. 
Forty Norman pilgrims happened to be at Salerno on their return from a visit 
to the Holy Sepulchre, when a fleet of Sicilian Saracens appeared before the 
town and demanded contributions. The effeminate citizens would have yielded ; 
but the strangers sallied from the gates, charged the enemy with fury and so 
inspired the townsmen by their example, that the Saracens were driven, with 
immense slaughter, to the shelter of the ship they had quitted. Returning 
home, the pilgrims gave an account to their countrymen of a land beyond the 
Alps, where exploits might be achieved without difficulty, and where the richest 
booty might be obtained with facility. A Norman knight, named Drengot, first 
emigrated from Normandy with his family and retainers, and found abundant 
employment in the domestic quarrels of the Greeks. Their first attempts were 
not remarkable for success, and they entered into the service of the Lombard 
princes of Salerno and Capua, adapting their fidelity and constancy to the 
amount of their pay. Established in the town of Aversa, near Naples, by 
the gratitude of those they served, they presented a rallying point and an 
asylum for other adventurers. Of nine sons of Tancred of Hauteville, a 
Norman chatelain, seven left their father's house to carve out for themselves 
fortunes in Italy. Three of these brothers became the most distinguished 
knights in the army with which the Greek patrician Maniaces attempted to 
reconquer Sicily from the Saracens. Aided by their intrepidity and that of 
the three hundred Normans who followed them, Maniaces made considerable 
progress in reducing the island ; but he refused them a share of the spoil and 
rewarded their labours with injustice and ingratitude. They therefore returned 
to Aversa, where all the Normans determined to assist them in their revengeful 
scheme of wresting from the Greeks their whole possessions in Italy. Ma- 
niaces was succeeded by Dokian, whose misconduct occasioned dissensions among 
the Greeks, of which the Normans took advantage to capture the greater 
part of Apulia. In an assembly held at Amalfi, in 1043, the Norman con- 
quests were divided among the twelve principal chiefs, and the title of Count 
of Apulia was bestowed on William of the Iron Arm, the eldest son of Tan- 
cred of Hauteville, and successively passed to his three brothers. 

After the battle fought at Civitella with Pope Leo, that pontiff" became 
thoroughly reconciled to them, and granted to their prayers the investiture, as 
a fief of the Holy See, all the lands they already possessed and such as they 



CONQUEST OF SICILY BY THE NORMANS. 197 

might thenceforward conquer in Sicily and Southern Italy. From the year 
1046 Robert Guiscard and Roger, also sons of Tancred, had associated them- 
selves with their brothers, William, Drogon, and Humphrey. Robert succeeded 
to the power of Humphrey in 1057, made himself master of the two Cala- 
brias, and arrogated to himself the ducal dignity ; thereby raising himself above 
the other Norman counts. For twenty years he persevered, with scanty 
numbers, in the scheme of subjugating the dominions of both the Greek and 
Lombard princes, and in confirming his authority over the haughty and tur- 
bulent Norman barons. He finally obtained from Pope Nicholas II. the con- 
firmation of his assumed titles of Duke of Calabria and Apulia ; and the 
republics of Campania alone preserved a doubtful independence by electing him 
as their duke. 

Whilst Robert was thus employed on the continent, his brother Roger 
had engaged in the astonishing design of conquering the island of Sicily 
from its infidel possessors. The pretext for Norman interference in the affairs 
of the island was found in the pontifical donation, and in the calls for assist- 
ance extended by one of the many parties into which the inhabitants of the 
island were divided, to Robert Guiscard. In the first attempt, Roger braved 
in an open boat the dangers of Scylla and Charybdis ; landed with sixty 
soldiers on a foreign shore ; drove the Saracens to the gates of Messina, and 
returned laden with spoil. Besieged in the fortress of Trani, where three 
hundred Normans withstood the forces of the whole island, he found many 
opportunities for the display of his fortitude and courage ; and he used, in old 
age, pleasantly to relate, that during the continuance of the siege, himself and 
the Countess, his wife, had been reduced to a single cloak, which they wore 
alternately. In a sally, his horse was slain, and he was dragged away by the 
Saracens ; but he escaped by the virtue of his sword, and brought away his 
saddle on his back, lest the enemy might boast of a trophy. In the field of 
Ceramio, fifty thousand horse and foot fled before one hundred and thirty-six 
Christian soldiers, " without reckoning," says Gibbon, " St. George, who fought 
on horseback in the foremost ranks." Adopting the supposition that each of 
the knights included in this number was, as usual, attended by five or six fol- 
lowers, the disproportion of the forces will still stagger our belief in the chro- 
nicle of Norman glories. The Arabs of Sicily derived a frequent and powerful 
succour from their brethren in Africa ; in the siege of Palermo the Norman 
cavalry was assisted by the galleys of Pisa, and in the hour of action the 
envy of the two brothers, Robert and Roger, was sublimed to a generous 
and noble emulation.* 

But the Saracens were embroiled in internal discord, and their island was 
broken up into numerous petty states ; we may therefore attribute to their 
dissensions a great part of the success which the chroniclers of the Normans 

* Gibbon. 



198 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 




NORMANS CONQtTEBINO SICILY. 



have assigned to their good swords alone.* Thirty years were consumed by 
the patient and persevering Roger in the accomphshment of his designs ; but 
the largest and most fruitful island of the Mediterranean at length acknowledged 
his sway, and, with the title of Great Count, Roger held Sicily as a fief of 
his brother's duchy. 

Whilst Roger was engaged in subduing Sicily, Robert, who found that 
that conquest would be of little benefit to himself, boldly invaded the empire 
of the east. Two years were spent in collecting forces and making prepara- 
tions for executing this magnificent design. At Otranto, the heel or extreme 
southern promontory of Italy, the forces were assembled ; Robert, his wife, 
who fought by his side ; Bohemond, his son by a former marriage ; thirteen 
hundred knights of Norman race or discipline, and retainers sufficient to swell 
the number of the forces to thirty thousand, were there embarked for the 
shores of Epirus. The brave patrician, George Palseologus, w^as prepared to 
defend the important city of Durazzo, the western key of the Grecian empire. 
The fleet of Robert was wrecked in the passage, and before it had recovered 
from the effects of the storm it w^as attacked by that of the Greeks. The 
valour of Bohemond, as yet a beardless youth, suspended the fate of the con- 
flict until the second day, when the Apulian galleys fled before the terrible 
Greek fire. At the same time the camp of the Normans was boldly attacked 
by a party sallying from the town, which also received timely succours from 
without. Pestilence, too, came to thin the already weakened forces of Robert ; 
but he remained undismayed, and vigorously pushed the siege, whilst he endea- 



* Procter's Italy. 



ROBERT GUISCARD AT DURAZZO. 199 

voured to raise reinforcements in Italy. Meanwhile the Greek sceptre had 
passed into the hands of Alexis Comnenus, the founder of the Comnenian 
dynasty. At his accession he found the throne menaced by Turks in the east, 
and Normans in the west ; and he made a hasty peace with the former, that 
he might the more readily crush the latter. Six months sufficed this active 
ruler to raise an army of seventy thousand men, and perform a march of five 
hundred miles. Exiles, soldiers of fortune, deserters, and renegades from almost 
every nation of Europe and Asia, were to be found in the formidable host 
thus brought to the rescue of Durazzo. On the report and distant prospect 
of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of his principal officers. 
" You behold," said he, " your danger ; it is urgent and inevitable. The hills 
are covered with arms and standards, and the emperor of the Greeks is accus- 
tomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety ; and 
I am ready to yield the command to a more worthy leader." The vote and 
acclamation, even of his secret enemies, assured him, in that perilous moment, 
of their esteem and confidence ; and the duke continued : " Let us trust in the 
rewards of victory, and deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us 
burn our vessels and our baggage, and give battle on this spot as if it were 
the place of our nativity and our burial." The resolution was unanimously 
approved, and Robert immediately carried it into eflfect. 

Before the break of day, the army of Alexis marched, in two columns, to 
surprise the band of Robert, now reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lom- 
bards and Calabrians fled towards the river and the sea ; but they found less 
danger in bold and manly combat than in retreat, and many of them returned 
to the aid of the eight hundred knights, who stood firm and entire around 
the standard of the duke, and his Amazon wife, Gaita. Wounded by an 
arrow, this heroic woman disdained to quit the field ; boldly continuing her 
efforts, she strove to rally the flying troops by exhortation and example. 
" Your enemy is implacable, and death is less grievous than servitude," were 
the words addressed by the magnanimous duke to his followers, as he led them 
to charge the exposed flanks of the Varangians, the sinews of the Greek army. 
The shock of his cavalry was furious and irresistible ; the Varangians were 
slaughtered, the Turks fled, the emperor despised his subjects and despaired of 
his fortunes. The pusillanimity of the Italians had proved fatal to many of 
them ; but only thirty Norman knights were slain on this glorious day ; five 
thousand of the Grecian host stained the field with their blood. Durazzo was 
taken on the 8th February, 1082 : Robert traversed Epirus and the mountains 
of Thessaly, surprised the city of Castoria, approached Thessalonica, and made 
Constantinople tremble. But he now commanded but one-third of the number 
with which he had set out from Otranto ; and instead of receiving succours 
from Italy, his affairs there demanded his immediate presence. He returned to 
Italy in a single vessel, leaving Bohemond with the army, to pursue the plan 
of conquest thus ably commenced. So well did Bohemond perform his part. 



200 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 




BOBBST GtJISCARD OBDEBING HIS SHIPS TO BE BURNED. 

that the unfortunate Greeks compared the two destroyers to the caterpillar 
and the locust — the last of whom destroys whatever has escaped the teeth of 
the former.* Alexis was twice defeated by him ; but his resources were great, 
while those of Bohemond daily became less ; he therefore abandoned the con- 
quests he could not defend, and rejoined his father in Italy. In that country 
Robert supported Gregory VII., against the empire, in his struggle for inves- 
titures. In the reverses which befell that great pontiff, in his latter years, he 
was saved by Robert from falling into the hands of the Emperor Henry IV. 
Shut up in the Castle of St. Angelo by the Imperialists, the life of the un- 
fortunate pontiff would have been sacrificed but for his Norman ally, who 
hastened to Rome, burnt half the city, released the pope, and gave him an 
asylum in his own domains. No sooner was the war thus finished in Italy, 
than Robert renewed his designs against the eastern empire. His troops fol- 



* Gibbon. 



THE MOORS AND SARACENS. 201 

lowed his standard with the confidence of success, and a career of the most 
brilHant character seemed about to open before his arms. The fleet of the 
emperor was defeated in a great combat ; but the duke had fought long 
enough ; the great actions which had occupied him through life had exhausted 
his strength. He fell ill and died at Cephalonia ; and though no enemy ap- 
peared, his victorious army dispersed or retreated in disorder. His soldiers 
embarked the body of their general in a galley, for Italy ; and though the 
vessel was wrecked, his remains were recovered and entombed in the sepulchre 
of Venusia. 

Robert Guiscard was succeeded in his duchy by his son Roger, to the 
exclusion of the brave Bohemond, whose military prowess soon sought a field in 
Palestine, where he and his noble cousin, Tancred, founded the principality of 
Antioch. The reigns of the son and grandson of Robert, his immediate suc- 
cessors, are not remarkable for any great events. On the death of the grand- 
son, William, in 1127, without children, the whole inheritance of the Hauteville 
family in Italy and Sicily came into the possession of Roger II., the son of 
Roger I., and the nephew of Robert Guiscard. During the reign of this prince, 
the war between the rival popes, Anacletus and Innocent II., attracted the 
attention of Europe. The arms of the Normans triumphantly seated the former 
in the Vatican ; the claims of the latter were acknowledged by the European 
nations. The German sovereign came to the aid of his favourite ; Anacletus 
died, and Roger was driven from Apulia. But he speedily recovered his pos- 
sessions ; and when the pope followed the example of his predecessor Leo, 
and took the field against him, he carried out the play, took him prisoner, and 
secured his friendship. Anacletus had conferred the regal title on his brave 
supporter ; Innocent confirmed it for his too powerful friend. Despite the 
efforts of the Emperor Lothaire II., and of the Pisans, Roger successfully 
defended his possessions, made himself master of Naples, in 1139, opposed with 
advantage the naval forces of the Emperor Manuel, and founded, on the most 
beneficial institutions, a power which we shall soon see transferred to the princes 
of another family.* 

A glance at the progress of the Moors in Spain, and the Saracens in the 
east, will close this chapter. In the former country, the death of Abdelrahman, 
whose illustrious reign at Cordova was followed by the dissensions of his chil- 
dren, gave some relief to the Christians. The little kingdom of the Asturias 
increased under the wise rule of Alphonso the Great, and the kingdom of 
Navarre, founded in 758, by Garcias Ximenes, had commenced the onward 
course by which it finally became one of the most considerable principalities 
in Spain. But more than three-fourths of the country, and the most fertile 
provinces, were in the hands of the infidels. They were, however, divided 
among themselves, and might have been crushed, had their enemies been firmly 

* Miehels. 
Vol. II. 26 



202 



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 




FUNERAL OF ROBERT GUISCARD. 



united. But though they all hated the Moors, they loved not each other. 
The family of Alphonso himself rose up in revolt against him ; he resigned his 
crown to Garcias, the eldest, and even fought under his command. He died 
in 912, alike distinguished by martial glory and saintly piety. In 938, Ra- 
miro II., king of the Asturias, (also called Leon and Oviedo), gained the cele- 
brated victory of Simances, in which the Moors are said to have lost eighty 
thousand men. He had vowed to St. James, that, if victorious, all his sub- 
jects should offer annually a certain measure of wheat to the church of that 
saint. The battle was fought, the Moors were slain, the church w^as enriched, 
and the name of the saint became the war-cry of the Spaniards. With enthu- 
siastic valour the Christians no longer trembled before their enemies ; the infidels 
were taught that the saint was able to protect those who never accorded him 
their homage. Hashem, king of Cordova, was happy in the possession of his 
general, Almanzor, perhaps the ablest warrior of his age. The name of St. 
James was long terrible to the Moors : Almanzor taught them, in a battle 



DECLINE OF THE CALIPHAT. 203 

fought on the banks of the Ezla, in 995, that they could conquer in spite of 
St. James. It is asserted that he vanquished the Christians in fifty engage- 
ments. He took the city of Leon by assault, sacked Compostella, pillaged 
the Church of St. James, and carried its gates in triumph to Cordova. But 
sickness broke out in his camp ; the Christians regarded the distemper as a 
judgment inflicted by the saint ; their enthusiasm rekindled, and they ran to 
battle with a confidence that insured victory, A. D. 998. Almanzor v^^as so 
ashamed of his defeat, that he would neither eat nor drink, and in consequence 
perished of hunger. About the beginning of the eleventh century, the race 
of Abdelrahman became extinct, and the kingdom of Cordova was dismem- 
bered. Toledo, Valencia, Seville, Saragossa, and all the large cities, became 
independent kingdoms, and a similar increase of sovereigns scorning control, 
occurred among the Christians. There were kings of Leon, Navarre, Castile, 
and Arragon ; and Pancho of Navarre even subdivided his dominions among 
his four sons, A. D. 1034. Much ambition, and small means, characterized 
them all ; petty jealousies produced constant wars ; and murder, in the camp 
and in the closet, by the dagger of the assassin, by poison, or in angry alter- 
cation, stains every page of the Spanish annals.* 

In Asia and in Africa, the close of the ninth century marks the obscu- 
ration of the glory of the Caliphat. One after another the African governors 
threw off their allegiance. Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, formed separate and inde- 
pendent states ; and the quarrels of ambition were augmented by the most 
violent religious enthusiasm. The race of the Fatimites, in Egypt, indulged 
in all the fury of fanaticism. Cairo, their capital, and the seat of their caliph, 
became an important city. A new sect of Islamism, sprang up, and acquired 
strength by persecution. Revolting, they obtained several victories, and seized 
the provinces on the west coast of Africa which form the present kingdom 
of Morocco. Their chief, like the other cahphs, assumed the title of the Com- 
mander of the Faithful, and united the priesthood with royalty. The caliphs 
of Bagdad received into their service a body of Turks or Turcomans, a Tartar 
tribe, whose valour was such that they were employed as the royal guard. 
The caliphs gradually became effeminate, and the commanders of the guard, 
subjected those whom they were hired to protect. They made themselves 
lords of Asia ; stripped the caliphs of the sovereignty, but permitted them to 
retain the pontificate which they revered. Many sovereigns sprung up under 
the name of Sultans, who received their dominions from the caliphs, but left 
them no authority. Thus the empires of Charlemagne and the Arabs crum- 
bled in pieces, while that of Constantinople still stood like a large tree, vigorous 
though old, stripped of its branches, and some of its roots, and buffeted on 
every side by storms and tempests.f 

* Russell — Gibbon — Blair. j- Russell — Voltaire. 




HILDE BRAND, 



CHAPTER V. 




UPERSTITION, credulity and confidence were the cha- 
lacteristics of the barbarians who overturned the Western 
iinpire, and became subjects of the church which survived 
its fall. Less enlightened, they were more munificent than 
the earlier Christians, and they eagerly sought to increase, 
by pious donations, the wealth of the clergy, already en- 
dowed with considerable possessions. From every side 
the bishoprics and the monasteries continually received accessions of territory ; 
the broad lands of the baron being taken, at his death, from his son to expiate 
upon the altar for his own wicked life. While the clergy in general were thus 
becoming aggrandized, a scheme was formed for subjecting the whole Church 
to the government of an ecclesiastical monarch — the bishop of Rome. This 
functionary was especially venerated ; classical and religious prejudices tended 
alike to produce this effect ; and it was still further increased by the habit 
which the people acquired of looking to Rome for protection and aid, when, 
as often happened, they were abandoned by their tlistant rulers, the emperors 
of the East. In later ages the popes have referred to a grant of the Emperor 
Constantine, as the foundation of their temporal power; but whether, with 
Ariosto, we place in the moon the donation of Constantine to the Holy See, or 

■S04) 



THE ICONOCLASTS. 205 

admit the statements of the fathers of the church to be true, we must assign 
the foundation of the wealth of the Church to a Liw passed by that emperor 
in 321, whereby rehgious pastors received a legal sanction for their holding 
property of every description, whether acquired by gift or testamentary dispo- 
sition.* With wealth, learning, and talent at their command, the bishops 
gained political ascendancy ; and it was long before they ventured to lay 
aside that moderation by which they reconciled people to the government 
of the crozier. But the papal authority had made no great progress m any 
country of the west, except Italy, until the beginning of the seventh century, 
under the pontificate of the ambitious and zealous Gregory I. By him the 
divine authority and office of the successors of St. Peter were first clearly 
defined and acknowledged by the superstitious barbarians to whom they were 
addressed. The authority thus assumed was gradually confirmed by the lapse 
of time, though the Church received no great accession of power until, by the 
breaking out of the contest with the Greek emperor, concerning the worship 
of images, it gained the independent sovereignty of the city of Rome. 

The Eternal City had undergone many strange vicissitudes since the fall 
of the Western empire ; and it is probable that it was only saved from capture 
at the hands of the Arian Lombards, by the increased strength which was 
given to it by those who fled to the capital for safety when the provinces 
fell before the invaders. The clergy, the senate, and the people, all concurred 
at this time in the election of the pontiff, who, being generally a Roman, was 
enabled to withdraw from a neglectful emperor the respect and obedience of 
his Italian subjects. It is not wonderful, therefore, that they sided with the 
bishop of Rome in the Iconoclastic contests, and transferred their allegiance 
from the emperor to the popes. By sanctioning the dethronement of Childeric, 
and the usurpation of Pepin, the pontiffs received the protection and support 
of the Carlovingian princes, from the greatest of whom they obtained the ex- 
archate of Ravenna, with other substantial temporalities. The popes had 
hitherto generally merited their elevation by their virtues ; but very different men 
now aspired to the ecclesiastical sovereignty, and their ambitious crimes hence- 
forth sully the annals of the Church. It is inconsistent wdth the design of this 
work to follow the papal succession through the many revolutions which con- 
vulsed all Italy, and we therefore, with a notice of Leo IV., who so bravely 
defended the holy city against the Saracens, pass to the time of John XII. 
That pontiff, the first who changed his name on his accession to the papal 
chair, was the son of Alberic, a patrician of Rome. Though an ecclesiastic, 
he succeeded to his father's dignity, and united in his own person the spiritual 
and temporal authority. 

Two years after the death of Berenger I., Hugo Duke of Provence was 
elected to the Italian throne, A. D. 926, and succeeded in making his authority 

* Procter's Italy. 



206 



INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 



despotic. Every one, who stood in his way, was marked as a victim ; among 
others was his relative, Berenger, grandson of the sovereign of that name. An 
edict was issued for depriving Berenger and his consort of their eyes ; and they 
escaped with difficulty to the court of Otho, king of Germany. Five years 
afterwards, A. D. 945, Berenger entered Italy with a few followers, was joined 
hy all the disaffected, and would have wrested the sceptre from the grasp of 
the tyrant, had not the nobles interfered. They chose Lothaire the son of 
Hugo, to be king, and appointed Berenger to administer the affairs of the 
realm in his name. Lothaire died, 950, a supposed victim to the ambition of 
Berenger, who feared, that as the king was not hated, whilst his queen was 
adored by the people, the confidence of the nation would be withdrawn from 
himself. He afterwards demanded for his son the hand of the fair widow, and 
persecuted her when she steadily resisted the proposal. Her piety touched the 

hearts of the priests and the people, and 
both classes joined with the nobles in en- 
treating Otho the Great to deliver Italy 
from a king whom they regarded as a despot. 
The German ruler entered Italy, freed and 
espoused Adelaide, and reduced Berenger to 
submission. He suffered him, however, to 
hold possession of the kingdom as a fief, 
until 961, when he took advantage of a 
pretext for dethroning him, afforded by the 
complaints of the Italian nobles. He im- 
prisoned Berenger for life, and received from 
Pope John XII. the imperial dignity, which 
had been suspended for nearly forty years.* 
John had been instrumental in causing 
the emperor to enter Italy ; but he soon 
perceived that by that step he had forged 
chains for himself, and in the following 
year he declared against the emperor. Otho therefore marched to Rome, put 
John to flight, and assembled a council to try him for the notorious and 
shameful life which he led. This tribunal deposed him and consecrated Leo 
VIII. in his place. The emperor had no sooner left the city than the new 
pope was expelled by the partisans of John, who returned to Rome, reassumed 
the papal dignity, and died before Otho could depose him again. The Romans 
chose Benedict V. for his successor, but Otho restored Leo VIII. and exiled 
Benedict to Germany. When Leo died he gave to John XIII. the keys of 
St. Peter. This pontiff was expelled by the Romans, and Otho was obliged 
again to cross the Alps to reinstate him. He now crushed the opposition to 




OTnO THE GREAT. 



Procter's Italy. 



OTHO THE GREAT. 



207 




OTHO ENTERTAINING THE SENATOBS. 



his will by the execution or exile of all the republican magistracy of Rome. 
He invited the senators to a splendid feast, surrounded them with his guards, 
designated his enemies, and ordered them to immediate execution, earnestly 
entreating the other guests to be merry, and not to suffer their enjoyment to 
be disturbed by such a trifle. Otho soon afterwards died, having re-established 
the greater part of Charlemagne's empire. The reign of his successor, Otho 
II., was less successful. Employed hi other parts of the empire, he had little 
leisure to attend to the disorders which immediately broke out in Italy. The 
feudal lords endeavouring to establish their independence, the cities to acquire 
freedom, the pope to uphold the imperial cause, and the popular party to de- 
stroy the influence of the head of the church, form the prominent features in 
the picture of these turbulent times. John XIII. was arrested by Cincius, and 
strangled in prison ; and during the contests for the succession, the miserable 
eternal city was again filled with licentiousness and disorder, seditions and 
assassinations. These scandalous proceedings weakened the influence of the 
papal See ; but Sylvester II. removed, by his personal virtues, the opprobrium 



208 INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

which had fallen upon the papacy, and again commenced the augmentation of 
her power. 

The papal and imperial interests were united — the popes supporting the 
imperial cause against the turbulent nobles of Italy, and the emperors aiding 
the popes in their struggles with the Roman princes and citizens. The fruits 
of every victory, however, were secured by the popes, who were always on 
the spot, whilst the attention of the emperors was distracted by other objects. 
But the power of the See was not fully consolidated, owing to the factions 
of the citizens of Rome. Three rival popes shared the revenues at one time, 
A. D. 1045, each rivalling the others in licentiousness and extravagance. A 
pious priest, John Gratian, persuaded them all to resign, and was himself elected 
to the papal chair under the title of Gregory VI. But the Emperor Henry 
procured his deposition and the election of Clement II. 

This new pope conceded to their emperor, for the future, an explicit right 
of nominating his successors. Clement was averse to his own elevation ; he 
felt the imprudence of the emperor in deposing Gregory, who was infinitely 
better than his predecessors ; and he perhaps anticipated the fate which was 
about to befall him. Nine months after his elevation he was killed by poison, 
administered at the instigation of Benedict IX., one of the popes deposed by 
Gregory. His successor, Damasus II., met with the same fate. 

We have next to notice the career of a man of dauntless courage, un- 
bounded ambition, and stern, unconquerable energies ; a man in whose breast, 
hardened by the solitude of the cloister, were cherished none of the feelings 
of humanity or conscience ; none of the holier passions which tend to turn 
men aside from the relentless career of ambition. Self, in Hildebrand, was 
totally lost in the higher feeling of zeal for the church ; her head, he thought, 
should be raised above all the princes and kings of this earth ; and the accom- 
plishment of this desirable end he pursued during his whole life with a con- 
stancy, prudence, and power of will, which have placed him in the front rank 
of energetic men. The inalienable attribute of the Roman pontiffs, as the repre- 
sentatives of the divine power on earth, was a divine right to universal obe- 
dience : immediately from them as suzerains, emperors and kings held their 
crowns — patriarchs and bishops their mitres. This was the doctrine of Hilde- 
brand ; and no opportunity of asserting it was suffered to pass unimproved. 
Thus he informs the French monarch that every house in his kingdom owed 
to Peter, as its father and pastor, an annual tribute of a penny ; and he com- 
mands his legates to collect the same, in token of the subjection of France to 
the Holy See. He assures Solomon, the king of Hungary, that his territories 
are the property of the Holy Roman Church. Solomon, being incredulous and 
refractory, is dethroned by his competitor for the Hungarian crown. His 
more prudent successor, Ladislaus, acknowledged himself the vassal of the pope 
and paid him tribute. To Corsica a legate is sent to govern the demesnes 
of the papacy in the island, and to recover the rest of it from the Saracens. 



HILDEBRAND. 209 

To the Sardinians an account is despatched of her title to their obedience, 
with menaces of a Norman invasion if it should be withheld. On Demetrius 
Duke of Dalmatia we find the pontiff conferring the kingly title, reserving the 
yearly payment of two hundred pieces of silver " to the holy Pope Gregory 
and his successors lawfully elected as supreme lords of the Dalmatian king- 
dom." Among the visiters at Rome was a youth described in one of his 
epistles as son of the king of Prussia. The letter informs the sovereign so 
designated, that at the request of the young prince, the pontiff had adminis- 
tered to him the oath of fealty to St. Peter and his successors, not doubting 
that " it would be approved by the king and all the lords of his kingdom, since 
the apostle would henceforth regard their country as his own, and defend it 
accordingly." From Sweno the Dane he exacted a promise of submission. 
From the recently converted Poles he demanded and received, as sovereign lord 
of the country, an annual tribute of an hundred marks in silver. From every 
part of the European continent bishops are summoned, by his missives, to Rome, 
and there are either condemned or deposed, or absolved and confirmed in their 
Sees. In France, in Spain, and in Germany, we find his legates exercising 
the same power ; and his correspondence records many a stern rebuke, some- 
times for their undue remissness, sometimes for their misapplied severity. The 
rescripts of Trajan scarcely exhibit a firmer assurance both of the right and 
the power to control every other authority, whether secular or sacerdotal, 
throughout the civilized world."* 

The man who carried the power of the papacy to such a mighty emi- 
nence, was the son of a carpenter at Saone, an Italian city. While the dis- 
tinctions of caste were rigidly established in all the forms of social life, the 
clerical state knew no aristocracy but that of talent ; and the talents of Hilde- 
brand procured him an elevation as rapid as it was portentous. The holiness 
of his life, the severity with which he disciplined himself, and his zealous 
obedience to the wishes of his superiors, had rendered his name widely cele- 
brated, and gained for him much influence by the time when the news of the 
assassination of Pope Damasus II. reached him in his cell, within the lofty 
walls of the rich monastery of Clugni. Hildebrand left his retreat for the 
imperial court, hoping to have some influence in the nomination of a successor 
to the murdered pontiff ; but on the road he learned that the diet at Worms, 
by direction of the emperor, had invested Bruno bishop of Toul, with the 
tiara, under the title of Leo IX. Virtuous principles, and strict integrity, but 
weakness in intellect, and want of firmness, characterized the new pope. Hil- 
debrand knew his failings, and how to take advantage of them ; nor is it 
surprising that at the first interview the sovereign who came to demand the 
homage, should virtually resign himself to the direction of the subtle monk. 
Leo dreaded that the circumstance of his having been nominated by the em- 

* Edinburgh Review. See Art. IlildebranJ. 
Vol. II. 27 



210 INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

peror, and elected by a German diet, would render him unpopular in Italy. 
Hildebrand regarded an election made at the bidding of a secular power, 
without the precincts of the holy city, as a profane title to the seat oi the 
Prince of the Apostles. His active mind, however, readily devised a method 
for overcoming the difficulty. At his bidding the pontiff elect, who had come 
to Clugni with the pomp, the insignia, and the retinue of his office, departed 
from it as a pilgrim to the tomb of St. Peter. Barefooted, with humble garb and 
lowly aspect he entered the holy city, having no human attendant save his 
austere adviser. The acclamations of the Roman clergy and people, gratified 
at this acknowledgment of their electoral privileges, rewarded the self-abasing 
candidate with a new, and, as he deemed it, a better title to the chair of Saint 
Peter. The successful schemer rewarded himself with the rank of a cardinal, 
and the offices of sub-deacon of Rome and superintendent of the church and 
convent of St. Paul. 

The excesses committed by the Norman conquerors aroused the indignation 
of Leo, who laid aside his dignity to lead an army against them. The empe- 
rors Constantine IX. and Henry III. furnished him with troops, but he was 
completely defeated, and fell into the hands of his enemies at Civitella, in 1 053. 
The victors, however, instead of exulting in their success, prostrated themselves 
before him and implored absolution for the guilt of having defended themselves 
against him. Leo was affected by their entreaties and readily pardoned them. 
But his indomitable adviser divided with the conquerors themselves the pro- 
ceeds of the victory. He conceded the great fiefs of Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily 
to the Normans, but retained the suzerainty over them for the Holy See. Thus 
he exchanged a comparatively valueless territory for a new feudal dominion, 
and the allegiance of warlike vassals, who might stand him in good stead 
when the hour had arrived for engaging in the conflict which was to assign 
to the Roman crozier the supreme dominion over the Christian world. But 
that hour was yet distant, and the clear-sighted Hildebrand patiently awaited 
its approach. 

Gebhard, bishop of Eichstadt, was selected by the wily Italian as best 
fitted to fill the vacant papacy, and he personally besought the Emperor Henry 
to acquiesce in the choice of a prelate who possessed his unbounded confidence 
and affection. Henry saw the net which had been spread for him, but he could 
not avoid it ; every objection was answered ; every other candidate was shown 
to be less suited for the elevation than Gebhard, the priest without reproach, 
the holy statesman, who had ever lent his advice and his authority to support 
the imperial resistance to papal encroachments. Gebhard therefore became 
pope with the title of Victor II. The result proved the accuracy with which 
Hildebrand had directed his measures. With the triple crown, Victor accepted 
in their fullest extent the anti-imperial principles which it had been the work 
of his previous life to oppose. Oppressed with the weight of gratitude which 
was due to so disinterested a patron, Victor found for him an honourable exile 



ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. 



211 




LEO IX. ABSOLVING THE NORMANS. 



in the capacity of papal legate in France. In one year he returned in triumph 
to Rome, and the pope accepted him as his chief adviser and director. In 
that short time he had summoned before his legantine tribunal the whole body 
of ecclesiastical dignitaries subject to his control, on a charge of simony ; he 
had convicted over eighty of them in a manner which was deemed supernatu- 
ral, and which gained for him the wonder and the awe of the ignorant, and 
the admiration of the learned and the great, and had adjudged to Henry and 
his successors the imperial dignity, when that monarch and Ferdinand of Cas- 
tile referred their rival claims to his arbitration. 

At the death of Henry, his infant son ascended the imperial throne 
as Henry IV. Victor II. soon followed the emperor to the grave, and 
Frederick of Lorraine, by the influence and for the ends of Hildebrand, was 
chosen to succeed him. Frederick was the brother of Godfrey, who, during 
the minority of his daughter acted as Duke of Tuscany. By his election to 
the papacy, Hildebrand united to the pretensions of the See the arms of the 
most powerful of the Italian states. Stephen IX., that was the title he assumed, 
rewarded his cunning benefactor with the offices of cardinal-archdeacon of 
Rome and legate at the imperial court. Eight months afterwards he died. 
Hildebrand then returned from Germany, and caused Gerard (Nicholas II.), 



212 INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

another adherent of the ducal house of Tuscany, to be chosen pope. He had 
brouo-ht with him, in anticipation, the consent of the infant emperor to the 
election. Nicholas, as the tool of the great designer, summoned a council, at 
which, in 1059, the exclusive right of voting at papal elections was conferred 
on the college of cardinals. This bold, revolutionary measure set aside both 
the privilege of the emperor to confirm, and the right of the Romans to elect 
the successor of St. Peter. The Norman freebooter, Robert Guiscard, effectu- 
ally crushed the opposition of the Roman counts and barons, and was rewarded 
for his zeal with the title of duke, and the recognition of his sovereignty over 
all his conquests. Nicholas soon after died, leaving to the aspiring ruler the 
opportunity of deciding the impending controversy by the choice of a new 
pope without the interference of the empress regent. Hildebrand first suggested 
to the empress a compromise : if Agnes would consent that the cardinals only 
should vote at the election, he would guarantee that the choice should fall 
upon the candidate whom she w^ould name. His proposal w\is rejected : an 
imperialist synod chose Cadolous, bishop of Parma, to fill the vacant papacy 
under the title of Honorius II. Hildebrand and his adherents elevated Anselm, 
bishop of Lucca, who chose the title of Alexander II., and evinced his grati- 
tude to the godly monk by appointing him to the office of chancellor of the 
Holy See. The claims of the rival popes were referred to a council : the 
election of Alexander was confirmed, and the triple crown adorned his brow 
for twelve years. At his death the reward which had been so long within 
the grasp of the self-controlling Hildebrand, the possession of the tiara, the 
summit of sacerdotal ambition, was now to be his. On a bier in the great 
church of the Lateran the body of Alexander was extended ; a solemn requiem 
recommended his soul to the Supreme Judge, and thousands of pious visiters 
listened to the plaintive strain. Suddenly a universal shout, proceeding from 
all parts of the crowded edifice, proclaimed the will of St. Peter that the holy 
chancellor was pope. Flying to the pulpit, Hildebrand vainly attempted to 
calm the uproar ; a cardinal announced that the sacred college had unani- 
mously confirmed the choice of the apostle and the laity, and the monk of 
Clugni, in the robes of the pontificate, was presented to the people. Thus 
the rejoicings and pomp of the inauguration w^re mingled with the solemnities 
and mourning of the funeral. 

About to become openly a foe to Germany, the new pontiff laid aside 
the German name of Hildebrand for that of Gregory VII. Though the resist- 
ance of imperial authority had been thus anticipated and defeated, Gregory 
breathed nothing but submission to the emperor, who ratified the election, 
though all the world well knew, that had his power equalled his wishes, the 
emperor would have driven the pope from Italy as a rebel and a usurper ; 
while the pontiff, on his part, was able and determined to defend the position 
he had so long laboured to attain. The emperor had been educated in all the 
vices of the times, and his crimes and follies were notorious throughout Europe, 



PERSECUTION OF THE SECULAR CLERGY. 213 

and Hildebrand caused the last act of Alexander to be a summons to the 
emperor, Henry IV., to appear at Rome, and answer in person to the apostolic 
throne the charges of simony, a debauched life, and an impious reign. " The 
voice was Alexander's voice, but the hand was the hand of Gregory." Henry 
despised the citation of Alexander, and Gregory did not immediately revive it.* 

He felt that the church needed to become more pure, that a reputation 
for austerity was to be universally established, before he could hope to effect 
her rescue from the hands of laymen. When once rendered free from all other 
feeling than that of devotion to the church, he saw that the clergy would be 
qualified for the task of elevating the spiritual above the temporal powers. 
" The church must recruit her strength by abstinence and sacrifices, must 
plunge into the icy waters of Styx, and steep herself in chastity." 

Already, and during the power of the two popes who had preceded him 
in the pontificate, he had given out that a married priest was no priest ; and 
great agitation ensued. An active correspondence commenced, leading to a 
common effort on the part of the priests ; when, emboldened by their numbers, 
they loudly declared that they would keep their wives. " We prefer," they said, 
" abandoning our bishoprics, abbeys, and cures : let him keep his benefices." 
The reformer did not flinch. The carpenter's son did not hesitate to let loose 
the people on the priests. In all directions, the multitude declared against the 
married pastors, and tore them from the altar. The people once given the 
rein, a brutally levelling instinct made them delight in outraging all they had 
adored ; in trampling under foot those whose feet they had kissed, in tearing 
the alb, and in breaking in pieces the mitre. The priests were beaten, cuffed, 
and mutilated in their own cathedrals ; their consecrated wine was drunk, and 
the host scattered about. The monks pushed on and preached. The people 
became inspired with a bold mysticism, and habituated to despise form and 
dash it to atoms, as if to set the spirit free. 

This revolutionary purification of the church shook it to its very founda- 
tion. The means resorted to were atrocious. The wild anchoret, Pietro 
Damiani, traversed Italy with curses and maledictions, careless of life, and 
stripping bare with pious cynicism the turpitude of the church. _ This was to 
mark out the married priests for death. Manegold, the theologian, taught that 
the opponents of reform might be slain without compunction. Gregory VII., 
himself, approved of the mutilation of a refractory monk.f The attainment 
of this object (the celibacy of the clergy) was of the greatest importance to 
Gregory for the completion of his extensive plans ; for if the clergy through- 
out all Christian countries were no longer bound by their domestic cares and 
anxiety for their children, and were made independent of the temporal lorrls, 
the pope would thereby gain so many thousand more zealous servants, who 

* Edinburgh Review. f Michelet. 



214 



INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 



would listen only to his command, and contribute to fix firmly the dominion 
of the church over all temporal power. 

In order to the more effectual accomplishment of this purpose, Gregory 
proceeded to render the clergy of the different countries entirely independent of 
the civil power. As lay vassals received from their sovereigns a banner, to be 
the mark of their services, so also the grand ecclesiastical dignitaries had hitherto 
received from their civil princes a ring and a shepherd's crook, as the sign 
of their investiture. Gregory prohibited the clergy from accepting this symbol 
of investiture from the hands of the nobles ; and insisted that for their elevation 
they were to be beholden to the papal chair alone, and only to the pope were 
they to swear the oath of obedience. According to this principle, the pontiff 
necessarily became sovereign lord of one-third of all the property in the Ca- 
tholic countries.* Thus was the purification of the church accomplished. 

It was now that the Church attacked the Empire. In the savage fierce- 
ness of her virginity, having resumed her virtue and renewed her strength, 
she questioned the age, and summoned it to restore to her the primacy which 
was her due. She called to account the adultery and simony of the king of 
France, the schismatic isolation of the Anglican church, and the feudal mo- 
narchy personified in the emperor. Of whom does the emperor hold the land 
which he dares to enfeoff to the bishops, except from God ? By what right 
does matter presume to direct spirit ? God has placed in the heavens two 
great luminaries — the sun, and the moon which borrows her light from the 



f-\^ (^~) (R 



sun. On the earth there is the pope, 
and the emperor, who is the reflection 
of the pope — a mere reflection, a pale 
shadow — let him recognise his own in- 
feriority. Then, the world restored to 
true order, God will reign, and the vicar 
of God.f 

Henry was too proud and too warlike 
to submit to the yoke which Gregory had 
prepared for the imperial authority ; but 
his wilful nature peculiarly unfitted him 
for a contest with the cool, wily, and re- 
solute pontiff. The arbitrary and des- 
potic conduct of the emperor, the con- 
Tj, sequence of his imperfect education, caused 
a spirit of disaffection among his German 
subjects which the crafty Gregory could 
not fail to mark and encourage. He 
would nevertheless have found himself unequal to a struggle with Henry, had 




HENRY IV. 



* Kohlrausch'S Germany. 



t Michelet's France. 



EXCOMMUNICATION OF THE EMPEROR. 



215 



he not been supported by the religious amazon, Matilda of Tuscany. Masculine 
in all respects, save in her devotion, she brought to the support of the Holy 
See, at this critical juncture, unshaken fortitude, heroic courage, and a weak 
and trembling female superstition. She was separated from two husbands, 
successively, because they did not share in her blind attachment to the papacy ; 
she adhered with unshaken fortitude, through all vicissitudes, to Gregory and 
his successors ; and finally she bequeathed, at her death, all the possessions 
of which she was entitled to dispose, to the Holy See, for the supposed sal- 
vation of her soul. 

Fortified by her allegiance and resources, Gregory began by excommuni- 
cating some of Henry's ministers on the charge of simony, and remonstrated 
with the emperor because they were not immediately dismissed. He next 
renewed the papal edict against the lay investitures, and finally, as the con- 
summation of insolence, cited Henry, himself, to appear at Rome, and vindi- 
cate himself from the charges of his rebelUous subjects. Such insults filled the 
inexperienced and passionate monarch with violent indignation. He assembled 
a number of his prelates, and other vassals, at Worms, and procured a sen- 
tence that Gregory should no longer be recognised as legitimate pope. (1076.)* 

" The time had now come," said Gregory, 
" when the avenging sword must be drawn to smite 
the enemy of God and of his church ;" and he assured 
the faithful that victory would reward their zeal, or 
divine consolations soothe their defeat. He then so- 
lemnly excommunicated the emperor, and released his 
subjects from their oaths of allegiance. The sentence 
ran thus : " In the name of the Almighty God, I 
forbid to King Henry, the son of the Emperor Henry, 
who, with naughtiness unheard of, has risen against 
the church, the government of the German and Italian 
empire, and absolve all Christians from the oath 
which they have made or will make to him, and for- 
bid that any one serve him as king. And, occupying 
thy office, holy Peter, I bind him with the bands of 
a curse, that all nations may learn that thou art the 
rock whereon the Son of God founded his church. "f 

Thus on one precarious issue did the glories of papal Rome seem to have 
been staked. Men foretold that the emperor would promptly punish the au- 
dacious treason, and level the pretensions of the rebel pontiff in the dust. But 
the advantages were really all on the side of Gregory. Though the emperor 
was in the prime of life, apparently the most powerful monarch of Europe, 
and the commander of numerous armies which had just been victorious over 




* Procter's Italy. 



t Kohlrausch. 



216 INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

the Saxons, yet he lived in continual dissensions with his subjects, and had 
less real power than any other king. His name, however, was greater than 
those of his contemporaries ; and the victory over him would be therefore more 
glorious for the pope. In the seeming weakness of the latter there was an 
invincible strength. In the minds of the people, his cause was that " of sanc- 
tity and of truth, of primeval discipline and traditionary reverence, and he 
himself a martyr, who, in all the majesty of superhuman power, was resolved 
either to repel the spoiler from the Christian fold, or lay down his life for the 
sheep."* 

The Saxons now rejoiced ; for their cause was the cause of the church, 
and their war-cry became " Holy Peter ;" to their disaffection the arrogance 
of the emperor had added that of many other German princes ; and the papal 
legates toiled actively for the dissemination of hostile feelings among the 
people. The majority of German princes assembled at Tribur, on the Rhine, 
to elect a new emperor. Henry hastened to Oppenheim, in the vicinity, and 
at length, after many entreaties and vows of reform, he obtained from them 
an extension of one year's delay ; and it was decided that, in the meantime, 
the pope should be requested to come to Augsburg, and himself closely inves- 
tigate the affair ; but if Henry, at the end of the year, was not freed from 
excommunication, they resolved to proceed immediately to a new election,! 

The prelates and nobles of Lombardy alone maintained their courage, and 
boldly retorted the excommunications of Gregory. Probably animated by the 
hope of obtaining their efficient aid, Henry resolved to cross the Alps, instead 
of waiting for the arrival of the pope at Augsburg, where his enemies consti- 
tuted the majority of the members. The hardships which the unfortunate 
monarch underwent during this journey, in the depth of a severe winter — the 
dangers to which he was exposed from the active malice of his enemies — the 
sight of the sufferings of his amiable queen. Bertha, and her child, who could 
only travel by being enclosed in the hides of oxen, and thus dragged through 
the Alpine passes — would have broken a sterner spirit than Henry's. He 
entered Lombardy completely disheartened ; and though his presence there was 
hailed with joy by his many adherents in Italy, he thought only of conciliating 
his great enemy. Gregory, learning the arrival of the emperor in Italy, and 
ignorant of his purposes, had turned aside from his road to Augsburg to seek 
safety, with Matilda, in the strong fortresses of Canossa. Henry prevailed on 
that pious daughter of the church to obtain for him an interview with the 
pope ; and he proceeded to Canossa for that purpose in January, 1077. 

Snow lay upon the ground, and the streams of the mountains were turned 
to ice in their beds, when, protected from the keen frost only by a thin, 
penitential garment of white hnen, Henry presented himself a suppliant at the 
gate of the inhospitable fortress. The frozen, rocky road caused the blood to 

* Edinburgh Review. t KoUrausch. 



SUBMISSION OF HENRY. 217 

stream from his naked feet as he ascended to the outer gate. It opened to 
admit him ; he passed through it and the second gateway, and stood in a 
posture of humiliating supplication before the third, which barred his progress. 
During three successive days the sun rose upon him fasting, and left him^'stiff' 
with cold, faint with hunger, and devoured by shame and ill-suppressed resent- 
ment. Lamentations and reproaches rang through the castle of Canossa, and 
the pope was upbraided as exhibiting the cruelty of a tyrant, rather than the 
rigour of an apostle. Yet Gregory was inexorable - it would seem as if he 
were determined to exasperate to madness the emperor himself, and all who 
would resent as a personal wrong an insult to their sovereign. Powerful as 
the mtercessions of Matilda usually were, they failed now to soften the stony 
heart of the monk. It was not till the emperor, aroused to resentment by the 
cruel treatment he had received, had broken away from the scene of his suf- 
fenngs to take refuge in a convent, that the pope admitted him into his pre- 
sence, and revoked the anathema of the Vatican. He was compelled to submit 
his claims to the crown to the future judgment of the Apostolic See — to live 
as a common citizen, with the title of emperor, until his fate was fixed and 
to promise an abject subservience to the papal direction, should he be restored 
to his authority. But this base humiliation, instead of conciliating his enemies 
procured for the emperor the contempt of all classes. His friends were indig- 
nant at his abjectness; the pope saw in it the means of working his ruin- and 
destruction faced him on every side. ' 

The dangers of his position restored him to his wonted intrepidity. Awak- 
ing from his dream, he broke off the treaty with Gregory, and resolved, if fall 
he must, to perish in the support of the imperial rights.* He began the war 
by a dishonourable, but ineffectual attempt to arrest Gregory and Matilda 
But the vigilant princess turned her holy father back from the road to Man- 
tua, whither he was proceeding at the invitation of the emperor, to her native 
mountam fastnesses. Meanwhile the turbulent German nobles had assembled a 
council at Forcheim, deposed their legal sovereign, and elected Rodolph, Duke 
of Swabia, to the imperial dignity. This proceeding, though contrary to the 
advice of the papal legates, immediately received their sanction, and, in the 
eyes of the simple-minded Germans, their master was bound . by their deed. 
But Gregory had no intention of being so bound, unless it should chance to* 
smt his convenience. He was now placed in a difficult situation. Canossa, in 
which he lived, had lately been ceded to the church, with all the other pos- 
sessions of the fanatical Matilda ; but he found himself a prisoner in his new 
palace. All the Lombard and Tuscan cities were in Henry's possession ; his 
renewed courage had revived the zeal of his adherents, and his troops beset 
all the passes. 

In Germany, too, the hearts of many of the people were with their exiled 

* Ediuburirh Review. 
Vol. n. 28 



218 



INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER, 



kino-. A party of those who viewed with rehictance the coronation of Rodolph, 
had become involved in a bloody feud with some of the Swabian soldiers in 
Mentz, before even the audience that witnessed the inauguration ceremony had 
issued from the church in which it was performed. The whole German people, 
from the Rhine to the Oder, were aroused. They remembered the courage, 
courtesy, and munificence of the king, and laid the blame of his youthful ex- 
cesses to the fault of the very churchmen who had corrupted him, and who 
now at Canossa subjected him to insult and indignity as the punishment for 
his corruption.* Thus the papal power was shaken in Germany, and the pope, 
dared not abandon Rodolph, lest he should totally ruin his own cause, whilst 
the power of the emperor in Italy deterred him from openly declaring against 
him. He resolved to preserve a mysterious neutrality, and directed his imme- 
diate attention to a controversy that had arisen respecting the eucharist. It 
was finally settled by the disputants, and the doctrine of transubstantiation was 
generally received as an article of faith.f 

Aided by the invincible Otho of Saxony, Rodolph gained two great vic- 
tories over the emperor, and had the further satisfaction of receiving a crown 
of gold from Gregory, who departed from his cautious policy and excommuni 
cated Henry. In the mountains of the Tyrol, a council, summoned by thf 
emperor, deposed the pope, and proclaimed as pope the excommunicated Wi 

bert, jirchbishop of Ravenna, better known by 
his title of Clement III. With the Normans 
and the troops of Matilda to support him, Gre- 
gory bade defiance to his enemies. In Germany 
the war terminated in favour of Henry. Otho 
was the master-spirit of Rodolph's adherents ; 
and to his direction, all the advantages gained 
by Rodolph, in the war, are to be attributed. 
The final battle was fought on the banks of 
the Elster. The armies advanced to the en- 
counter singing sacred songs ; but the holy 
strains were soon hushed in the fiercer cries of 
battle. A slight disorder in Henry's line caught 
the eagle eye of Otho ; he rushed upon the 
wavering troops, and the victory w^as decided. 
Thousands of the Germans lay dead upon the 
ground, or rested beneath the bloody waters of 
the river, ere night threw her sable curtain 
over the fatal field. The son of Saxony had 
secured to Rodolph the imperial crown ; but 
when the victors would have congratulated him 




GODFREY OF BOUILLON. 



* Edmbuv"h Review, 



t Taylor. 



.•:^n^^^^^\ ^ ^ ^ VA'> V^-v-AA A--V- V^- - X-^\-^\- ' ^^\-^^^ 




DEATH OF GREGORY VII. 221 

on the result, he was not to be found. The future conqueror of the Holy 
Tomb had borne on that field the banner of the lawful emperor. In the 
thickest of the fight, Rodolph and Godfrey of Bouillon met each other face to 
face. The rebel monarch received a thrust in his stomach from the spear on 
the imperial banner in the hands of the hero of the "Jerusalem Delivered." 
Another enemy cut off his right hand with a sword. He fixed his glassy eye 
upon the maimed limb, and his spirit passed away, as he murmured, " It is 
the hand with which I swore fidelity to Henry my emperor."* 

On the same day in which Henry was freed from this enemy, his troops 
defeated the army of the Countess Matilda in Italy. The fall of Rodolph was 
regarded as a judgment against the rebels ; and the partisans of Henry every- 
where rapidly increased in numbers. Leaving Otho to take what measures he 
pleased, the emperor crossed the Alps and advanced to Rome. Three times, 
in three successive years, he besieged the holy city. Bribery at length opened 
the gates to him, and Gregory was obliged to seek temporary safety in St. 
Angelo. In the great church of the Lateran Clement III. was formally con- 
secrated ; and then, as the successor of Peter, he placed the crown of Germany 
and of Italy on the brows of Henry and of Bertha, as they knelt before him. 
In a few hours the castle of St. Angelo would have been compelled to surren- 
der by famine or assault, and the aged pontiff would have been at the mercy 
of his enemy. But the wisdom which had united to the Holy See the arms 
of the Norman conquerors of Southern Italy, now met with its reward. Far 
away, attempting the conquest of the eastern capital and empire, Robert Guis- 
card had been unable to aid his suzerain in the struggle with the Germans ; 
but he returned in time to rescue him in his present extremity. The Norman 
battle-axe, the holy cross, and the Damascene scimitar, marked the component 
parts of the host which had come to encounter Henry, who hastily retreated 
out of Italy. But Gregory witnessed the destruction of two-thirds of the 
holy city by firebrands hurled by his allies. Plunder, lust, and carnage, were 
regarded by both the Northmen and the Saracens,, as the proper reward for 
their services. Every convent was violated and every altar profaned by their 
sacrilegious hands; and the darkness of night was dispelled by the glare of 
the burning city, that they might the more effectually prosecute their work. 
Gregory fled from the sight to the castle of Salerno, w^here he died. During 
his illness he continually hurled forth anathemas against Henry and all his 
adherents ; and as his unconquered spirit left its aged and worn-out tenement, 
he exclaimed ; " I have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, and therefore 
I die in exile." 

Little respite was produced for Henry by the death of his great antago- 
nist. The cardinals chose Victor III. for his successor ; and during his short 
reign that pontiff gained many advantages over the imperialists. After him 

* KolJrausch. Ediuburirli Review. 



222 INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

came Urban II., the friend and pupil of Gregory. He announced, at the time 
of his accession, his intention of proceeding in the path of his old master. 
He again excommunicated the emperor, the antipope, and their adherents. 
He negotiated a marriage between Guelph, son to the Duke of Bavaria, and 
the Countess Matilda; and from this union the reigning family of England 
traces its descent.* Strenuously did this new ally and the popes continue the 
contest for ecclesiastical independence. They raised enemies to Henry in the 
bosom of his family, supported his sons in unnatural rebellions, and drew on 
him the fanatical hostility of the leaders of the first crusade, in their passage 
through Italy. For twenty years the emperor was persecuted by the unre- 
lenting hatred of the pontiffs — wearied with incessant hostilities, and loaded 
with anguish by the infamous revolt of his children. He was finally forced 
to abdicate by his second son, Henry, and died, in old age and misery, broken- 
hearted and destitute, 1106. 

Both Pope Pascal II., who had remorselessly instigated Henry V. to 
criminal violence towards his father, and the young emperor himself, who had 
unnaturally upheld the cause of the church against his parent, reaped the first 
fruits of their iniquity. Pascal was betrayed and imprisoned by the prince 
who had been his guilty confederate ; and Henry, on his part, was long trou- 
bled, and finally humiliated by the ecclesiastical power for whose alliance he 
had violated every filial duty.f Though he had revolted from his father 
before his death, Henry now acted according to his principles ; and in defiance 
of the papal laws, he still continued to impart the investiture with ring and 
staff— a right which, as he informed the pope, his ancestors, since Charles the 
Great, had legitimately exercised for three centuries, under sixty-three popes.J 
For more than fifteen years of his reign he was arrayed in open opposition to 
the church, in this struggle for ecclesiastical investiture ; and successive popes 
still maintained against him a strenuous opposition to this prerogative. As he 
was stronger in the support of his German vassals than his father had been, 
and knew how to combine cunning and hypocrisy with force, the pontiffs were 
never able to proceed to similar extremities with him ; and a long and injurious 
contest was protracted without any decisive success. At length, in the pon- 
tificate of Calixtus II., both parties had become utterly exhausted and weary 
of this ruinous struggle ; and a treaty was concluded at Worms which set at 
rest the question of ecclesiastical investiture, A. D. 1122.§ Each yielded to 
the other. The emperor permitted the free choice of bishops, and gave up the 
investiture with the ring and staff, as symbols of spiritual jurisdiction ; but for 
concession on the other hand, the election was to take place in the presence 
of the king or of his plenipotentiary, and he was to decide in doubtful cases, 
or in any disagreement of the electors, and lastly, confer fiefs of temporal 
possessions with his sceptre. The spiritual consecration of bishops was to take 

* Taylor, t Procter's Italy. % Kohlrausch. ^ Procter's Italy. 



ABELARD. 



223 



place in Germany, after the investiture with the sceptre ; but in Italy it was 
to precede it. After the records were publicly read, the legate of the pope 
gave to the emperor the kiss of peace, and afterwards the communion ; and 
all separated, as the records say, with infinite pleasure. 

The remainder of the reign of Henry 
V. was not disturbed by further dissen- 
sions with the church. He died childless, 
in 1125, at Utrecht, in the forty- fourth 
year of his age. He did not acquire the 
love of his contemporaries ; he was des- 
potic, severe, and often cruel. Yet he 
possessed many great qualities — activity, 
boldness, perseverance in misfortune, and 
a noble-minded disposition. The mainte- 
nance of the imperial dignity against 
every enemy, appeared to be the chief 
object of his life. He was buried at 
Spires, in the tomb of his ancestors.* 

Under the rule of Honorius II., the 
successor of Calixtus, the monk St. 
Malachi brought the church of Ireland 
under papal supremacy ; and the revolted 

r r I J ^ HENRY V. 

Normans, in Southern Italy, were forcibly 
held to their allegiance. Innocent and 

Anacletus were each inaugurated as the successor of Calixtus. Anacletus died, 
and his party elected another antipope, who, however, submitted to Innocent. 
This pope, with his successors, Celestine II., Lucius II., and Eugenius III., 
were deterred from encroaching on the rights of kings and emperors by the 
necessity they were under of defending their domestic power against the as- 
saults of the politicians, the followers of Arnold of Brescia. The most accom- 
plished scholar, the best logician, the most popular lecturer on rhetoric in the 
age of Innocent II., was Abelard, a monk of the order of St. Benedict. Though 
unable to break the bonds of scholastic philosophy, he gave to the spirit of 
inquiry an impulse w^hich produced beneficial effects in a later age. His 
Essay on the Trinity procured for him the hatred of the monks, who besought 
St. Bernard to accuse him of teaching heretical opinions. Bernard refused, 
for a long time, to prosecute a man whom he esteemed ; but finally yielded 
to the remonstrances of his friends — laid the doctrines of Abelard before the 
council of Sens, in 1140 — had them condemned, and obtained an order for his 
imprisonment. Abelard appealed to the pope, published his defence, and went 
to Rome. Passing through Clugni, he visited the abbot, Peter the Venerable. 




* Kolilrausch. 



224 INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

A reconciliation between him and his enemies was effected by this enhghtened 
divine ; but Abelard resolved to end his days in retirement, and consumed his 
streno-th in severe monastic discipline. He bequeathed his cause to Arnold of 
Brescia, and other faithful disciples, who strove to emancipate knowledge, and 
liberate the mind of man from the soHtude of the cloister and the thraldom of 
superstition. Pure theology distinguished the opinions of Abelard ; but Arnold 
abandoned his master's mysticism, and endeavoured to reform the church and 
the government. The sanctity of the clerical profession, in his view, was in- 
consistent with the possession of power and w^ealth ; and such was the influ- 
ence which Arnold obtained by his preaching in Germany and Italy, that he 
was invited to Rome to revive the repubhc. Under the direction of " the 
poHticians," Rome set the example of resistance to papal usurpations. For a 
time Italy, and even all Europe, followed the example ; superstition and igno- 
rance thus ceasing to pour wealth into the Roman exchequer, the Italians found 
their profits thereby decreased, and they changed from opponents to upholders 
of the delusion, on condition of sharing in the profits. 

While the Emperors Henry IV. and Henry V. thus warmly contested 
the pretensions of the Holy See, hundreds of thousands of Christians, sum- 
moned by the voice of the Church, and excited by their own religious enthu- 
siasm, abandoned their homes, and assembled together to march to Palestine, 
there to recover and secure from the power of the infidels the tomb of the 
Saviour. Such a w^ar had been planned by Gregory VII., but the occurrences 
we have related diverted his attention from the East, and prevented any 
attempt at the formation of a general league of the Christian princes against 
Mohammedanism. Indeed, insuperable obstacles to such a scheme were pre- 
sented by the difficulty of communicating with the powers of Europe and the 
necessity of securing the assent not only of the monarchs, but of their prin- 
cipal vassals. An unforeseen event supplied Pope Urban with a much better 
means of organizing Europe against the East ; and after much toil and blood- 
shed, Jerusalem was wrested from the hands of the Turks, and a Christian 
kingdom established in Palestine. The history of the wars for the possession 
of the holy sepulchre will be found in the succeeding chapter. 





CHAPTER VI. 



•Jif ^iffii?g tl tije ©xugaticsf. 



~jS^^^^~^i^^^ii^S HE Crusades have been made the subject of much 
^ misrepresentation. In treating of them writers are 
apt to regard this great movement of the people 
^ ^ of Europe against those of Western Asia, as the 
;;^ mere effect of popular delusion — a mad enterprise, 
without intelligent direction or useful objects. Such 
<i conclusion is not warranted by a temperate re- 
^iew of the facts as recorded by contemporary 
historians. It should be remembered that at the 
period when the Crusades commenced, Christianity, 
which since the fall of the Western Empire had 
with difficulty maintained its ground, amidst the 
> rude barbarians who had become the possessors of 
Europe, found its very existence menaced by the 
increasing power of the followers of Mohammed. 
The intelligent pontitf to whom the direction of 
ecclesiastical affairs was then intrusted, saw the 
danger, and seized upon a favourable occasion for striking a blow at Islamism 
in its own strongholds, the moral effect of which was felt for many succeed- 
ing ages. 

It is true, that in the prosecution of w^hat were termed the Holy Wars, 
many things occurred w^hich afford evidence of folly and wickedness, such as 
stain almost every page of the world's history ; but these wars also abounded 
Vol. It. 29 (225) 




226 THE CRUSADES. 

with examples of noble heroism, piety, and self-sacrifice, such as we may 
vainly seek in the records of other military expeditions. 

In our account of the Crusades, we must adopt the statements of those 
historians who are regarded as impartial ; but at the same time, we entreat the 
reader to remember, that while recording the worst excesses of the crusaders, 
we give the better part of them due credit for their obedience to a noble 
sentiment of religion ; and we acknowledge, with gratitude, that the Christian 
world owes to these devoted soldiers of the Cross, many of the choicest bless- 
ings which it now enjoys. 

The immediate occasion which brought the Christian and Mohammedan 
powers into collision, was the manner in which the Turks, possessing Jerusa- 
lem, outraged the Christian feeling of veneration for the holy places which had 
witnessed the actions and sufferings of the Saviour. This feeling, entertained 
by the early Christians, had been augmented when the Roman empire became 
Christian. The Emperor Constantine caused a temple to be erected over the 
holy sepulchre ; and his mother Helena made a pilgrimage thither, during which 
she found what was reputed to be the cross on which our Lord expired. The 
number of those who followed her example annually increased ; and every great 
town soon contained houses of accommodation for pilgrims, founded expressly 
for that purpose by the pious and wealthy ; and even those engaged in the 
ravages of war, venerated and protected the superior sanctity which assumed 
the pilgrim's frock. Honour and consideration at home rewarded the wanderer 
on his return ; crowds came to the church, where, according to custom, he 
publicly gave thanks to God for the protection which had been granted to 
him, and gave to the priest, to be deposited on the altar, a branch of palrriy 
plucked in the garden of Abraham at Jericho. Known henceforth as a palmer, 
the narration of the toils he had undergone, and the holy sights he had wit- 
nessed, procured for him universal admiration ; and when any of his neigh- 
bours, moved by religious feelings, determined to follow his example, the whole 
community escorted him to the bounds of the parish ; the priest clothed him 
with the pilgrim's frock, the scarf, from which hung the wallet, and the con- 
secrated staff; and blessings and prayers for his safe return were uttered by 
all the multitude. The desire of possessing relics being universal, many 
pilgrims assumed a mercantile character, in order to gratify it ; and thus 
wealth was brought into the East. The politic rulers protected visiters whose 
arrival brought them profit ; and as Jerusalem had been the seat of prophets, 
whose inspiration both Christians and Mohammedans acknowledge, they found 
no difficulty in sympathizing with the veneration entertained for it by the 
pilgrims. 

An opinion that the end of the world was at hand, caused the number 
of pilgrimages to increase very rapidly, about the beginning of the eleventh 
century ; and many persons sold their estates and migrated to the Holy Land 
to await the comins of the Lord. 



PETER THE HERMIT. 



227 



Hitherto, the dangers of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land had been only 
those of the way ; none had awaited them at Jerusalem. But when the Turks, 
under Tutush, the brother of Malek Shah, conquered Syria to the borders of 
-^gypt' ^ rugged chief, named Orthok, received the government of Jerusalem 
and the surrounding district. Rude, impolitic, and fanatical, he suffered his 
followers to offer insults to the pious palmers, to beat the priests and profane 
the altar, the sacred vessels, and the images. The fees for entrance which 
the Saracens had charged, they exacted with far greater rigour ; and thousands 
of poor pilgrims lay about the gates unable to obtain admission. When they 
returned home, the palmers filled all Europe with tales of the many insults 
and miseries they had endured in their visit to the tomb of the Saviour.* 

Europe w-as at length effec- 
tually awakened to the import- 
ance of delivering the Holy City, 
by a simple pilgrim, who, to the 
fervour of an apostle, joined the 
courage of a martyr. Peter, a 
native of Amiens, in Picardy, had 
early entered upon a military life ; 
but he soon abandoned the pro- 
fession of arms and became a 
recluse. He retired to a hermit- 
age in the south of France, and 
there gained the reputation of a 
saint by his religious austerities. 
Leaving this retreat, he followed 
into Palestine the crowd of Chris- 
tians who went to visit the holy 
places. His emotions, at the sight 
of Jerusalem, were far greater 
than those of any of his fellow-travellers. Having followed them to Calvary, 
and to the holy sepulchre, he sought the Patriarch of Jerusalem. 

The snow-white head of Simeon, his venerable figure, and above all, the 
persecution he had suffered, merited for him all the confidence of the enthusi- 
astic Peter. They wept together over the wrongs of the Christians. The 
patriarch resolved to supplicate, by letter, the assistance of the pope and the 
princes of Europe ; the hermit was to be the interpreter of the Christians of 
the East, and to arm the West for their deliverance. Charged with the letters 
of the patriarch, Peter hastened to throw himself at the feet of Pope Urban IL 
The pontiff pronounced him a prophet, applauded his design, and furnished 
him with additional credentials to the temporal princes of Europe. 




PETES THE HERMIT AND THE PATRIARCH 
OF JERUSALEM. 



* Keightley. Mills's History of the Crusades. 



228 THE CRUSADES. 

Peter traversed the greater part of Europe, relating everywhere the 
miseries of the faithful in Palestine, and everywhere exciting for them the 
pity of their brethren of the west. He had succeeded in filling Western Eu- 
rope with the spirit of the crusades, when Urban convoked the council of 
Clermont in Auvergne. 

The pontiff crossed the Alps to attend this council, in the year 1095. 
The number of those who came to Clermont was immense. Thirteen arch- 
bishops, two hundred and twenty-five bishops, an equal number of abbots, 
with several thousand cavaliers and nobles, and an innumerable crowd of 
men and women of every condition, came thither in the heart of a most 
rigorous winter, impatient to hear the declaration of the Holy War ; Clermont 
and the towns and villages near it would not suffice to hold the concourse ; 
many were obliged to pitch tents in the open fields. 

Peter recounted to the masses here collected what he had already pub- 
lished in their houses and castles ; he excited their imagination by pathetic 
pictures of the prodigious outrages and persecutions inflicted by the Mussul- 
mans upon the faithful, who lived near holy places, and upon the pilgrims 
who visited them. Then Urban himself took up the argument. He called 
upon all Christians to arm to avenge the cause of Jesus Christ. " Let every 
one deny himself, and take on him the cross of Christ, that he may gain 
Christ ; let no Christian contend any more against another, that Chris- 
tianity itself may not perish, but rather be spread and advanced ; let blood- 
shed, enmity, and oppression cease ; let every one show hardihood and courage, 
not where they will bring on him a curse, but where they will gain him the 
forgiveness of sins and the crown of martyrdom. Let no one fear danger, 
for the might of the foe will be feeble before him who fighteth for the Lord ; 
let no one fear want, for he who wins the Lord is abundantly rich ; let no 
one be stayed at home by the tears of those he is leaving behind, for the 
grace of the Lord will protect them also." One cry, "God wills it!" burst 
forth from the lips of the whole assembly. Urban motioned them to silence 
and continued : " The words of the Scripture are now fulfilled : ' Where but 
two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in the midst of 
them ;' for nothing but the influence of the Lord produces the like zeal in 
you all, and makes the same word be spoken by each. Let this word he 
your war-cry in every conflict into which you enter for the faith of Christ ; 
the cross be your sign for strength and humility. The curse of the Holy See 
shall fall upon every one who seeks to impede this great enterprise ; but its 
support in the name of the Lord shall smooth your path, and guide you in 
all your ways."* The clergy and the laity, lords and humble vassals, the 

* It will be perceived by attentively considering these exhortations, that if to Peter 
belongs the honour of awakening the crusading spirit, the credit is not less due to Urban of 
concentrating this spirit, and directing it to its proper object, the preservation of Christianity 



PETER AND ALEXIS COMNENUS. 231 

free and the serf, monks, peasants, burghers, soldiers, all hurried to give their 
names to the holy leader, and to enrol themselves for the great invasion. 
Urban excused himself from conducting them to the East, on account of the 
unfriendly relations existing between him and the emperor ; all the multitude 
cast themselves on the ground, one of the cardinals read a general confession 
in their names, and the pope bestowed on them full absolution. Each pilgrim 
affixed a red cross to the right shoulder of his garment, and they thus gave 
themselves the name of the crossed {croises), and to the Holy War that of 
the Crusade. 

While the princes and the lords returned to their castles, and prepared 
themselves for the Holy War, the multitude whom the preaching of Peter 
had assembled around him, followed him, or rather pushed him before them, 
to the East. A single knight, Walter the Pennyless, served as a leader for 
this tumultuous band, who, in default of the manna which they had expected 
from Heaven, actually subsisted on their march by demanding alms. In 
France and in Germany the charity of the faithful came to their succour ; but 
arrived in the lands of Hungary and Bulgaria, their circumstances were altered. 
Kalmany or Carloman, King of Hungary, granted them a free passage through 
his territories, and a market ; and the advanced body, under Walter, passed 
on unharmed to Bulgaria. Their misconduct at Belgrade, which they impru- 
dently besieged, procured for them redoubtable enemies, who defeated them 
and forced Walter to throw himself on the protection of the Bulgarian prince, 
who sent them on to Constantinople. The main body followed them, under 
the direction of Peter himself. Kalmany would have treated them as he had 
Walter ; but fear of aggressions on the part of the pilgrims, and of robberies 
on the part of the inhabitants, produced continual suspicions, and finally led 
to hostilities, in which the Hermit lost the fourth part of his followers. With 
thirty thousand men, he finally effected a junction with Walter the Pennyless, 
beneath the walls of the imperial city. 

The Emperor Alexis Comnenus was curious to see the extraordinary man 
who had shaken all the West by his eloquence. He admitted Peter the Her- 
mit to a public audience, listened to the story of his mission and his mishaps, 
praised his zeal, and, as he had nothing to fear from the ambition of a her- 
mit, heaped presents upon him. He distributed to the impoverished army 
money and provisions, and counselled their leaders to wait, before commencing 
the war, for the arrival of the princes and the illustrious captains who had 
taken the cross. But the ardour of the crusaders w^as renewed with a supply 
of food, and, rejecting the well meant advice of the emperor, they crossed the 
Bosporus. 

against the increasing power of the Mohammedans. All who are familiar with the history 
of Eastern Europe, know that imminent danger from this source never ceased from the days 
of Charles Martel till the hour when the sword of John Sobieski saved Vienna from the in- 
vading Turks. 



232 THE CRUSADES. 

Dissensions arose between the Germans and Lombards, and the French ; 
and the former chose Reginald for their leader, established a separate camp, 
and commenced plundering the country. Peter went back to Constantinople 
to obtain supplies. During his absence, the French gained some advantages 
over the Turks in Nicsea ; and Reginald, emulous of their fame, led forth the 
Germans to seek for booty and glory. Four miles from Nicaea they took 
a castle, and resolved to fortify themselves in it and await there the arrival 
of the other crusaders. But they suddenly found themselves besieged, and 
held out eight days without water. Reginald then made a secret treaty, ab- 
jured his faith, and, with a few followers, went over to the enemy. The rest 
of the garrison were either slain or led into captivity. 

The army marched out for the purpose of revenging their brethren; but 
the Turks attacked them unexpectedly, and all but three thousand perished. 
These the emperor rescued and brought back to Constantinople, where they 
determined to await the arrival of their companions. 

In the countries about the Rhine, a priest, named Gottschalk, assembled 
fifteen thousand pilgrims, and led them into Hungary. As they lived by plun- 
der, they were soon cut to pieces by the brave King Carloman. The same 
fate rewarded the like conduct of a body under the command of a lay brother 
called Volkmar. 

Eight months after the Council of Clermont, the badge of the cross was 
assumed by Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, who had mortgaged his 
paternal domain of Bouillon, in order that he might be able to make a suita- 
ble appearance among the Christian chiefs. At the head of eighty thousand 
men, he commenced the grand movement which was to transport into Asia all 
those whom Europe then counted the most valiant cavaliers. In the middle of 
August, 1096, Godfrey set out fronfi the Rhine. He passed unharmed through 
the territories of King Carloman, his brother Baldwin remaining with his 
family as hostages in the camp of the Hungarian king. At the frontiers, Car- 
loman, who had followed the crusaders at a respectful distance, returned the 
duke his thanks, restored the hostages, and distributed presents among the 
chiefs. Their strict discipline procured for the soldiers of Godfrey the favour 
of Alexis, and they marched without impediment to Philippopolis. 

The Duke of Vermandois left France with a numerous band of crusaders. 
He received the benediction of Urban at Lucca, passed through Rome, and 
directed his course to Bari. Sailing from this port he was shipwrecked, near 
Dyrrachium, and subsequently conducted by Prince John, the Kpiperor Alexis's 
nephew, to Constantinople. Here Hugh of Vermandois remained in a sort of 
honourable captivity, treated with kindness, but suspected of hostile intentions ; 
and allaying the emperor's fear by taking the oath of fealty. 

Under these circumstances, Hugh complained of his detention to the pious 
Godfrey. His message reached Godfrey at Philippopolis, and envoys were im- 
mediately sent to Constantinople to demand of the emperor the freedom of the 



SIEGE OF NIC^A. 933 

French warrior. Alexis declined ; Godfrey gave the rein to his troops, and in 
a few days the region round Adrianople was made a desert. Two Franks came 
to say that the pilgrims were at liberty ; discipline resumed her sway, and the 
array marched to the capital. Alexis commenced a disgusting train of fraudu- 
tent negotiations, by which Godfrey and the other leaders were induced to swear 
fealty to him as the natural lord of the country they were about to invade. 
Though he had tried to persuade Godfrey to drive Alexis from the throne, 
Bohemond himself joined in the oath of allegiance. He also pledged himself 
that his bold nephew, Tancred, should do the same ; and the court of Flanders 
having also submitted, the fears of the emperor were relieved. 

Raymond of Toulouse and Archbishop Adhemar, having joined their forces, 
marched from Provence, in 1096. Godfrey, Bohemond, and the other chiefs 
were present at the meeting between the emperor and the haughty crusader, 
when Raymond refused to take the oath of fealty, and Alexis was obliged to 
be content with the promise that he would never commence or aid any hos- 
tihties against the emperor. 

Robert of Normandy, Stephen of Blois, Stephen of Albemarle, and others, 
at length arrived, at the head of the last army of pilgrims. After much hesi- 
tation, the leaders took the oath to Alexis, and followed the other bodies into 
Asia, to the great joy of the emperor and his subjects. The miserable remnant 
of the Hermit's followers were found at Nicomedia ; and while Peter recounted 
the evils which their cupidity had brought upon them, he rejoiced to witness 
the numbers of the armies which his eloquence had summoned to the field. By 
the lowest computation, the host marshalled on the plains of the Bosporus num- 
bered six hundred thousand souls, of whom three hundred thousand were well 
appointed infantry, and one hundred thousand mounted knights. 

The town of Nicaa, or Nice, the ancient capital of Bithynia, and the first 
town of importance in the Turkish territory, was speedily invested. The Sel- 
jukian, Kilij Arslan, had supplied it with a strong garrison, and was posted in 
its vicinity with his army. The failure of a fierce attack upon the crusaders 
convinced him of his inferiority, and he moved off to await the issue of the 
siege. The assaults were vigorous, but the heroic courage of the defenders 
withstood them. After seven toilsome weeks, the besiegers procured from Alexis 
an order for the transportation of his fleet from Kibotus overland to the lake, 
by which provisions and intelligence had been supplied to the garrison. Having 
by this means obtained the command of the lake, the crusaders marched with 
redoubled fury to assault the walls. The Turks defended themselves with valour 
and success. Many a brave pilgrim was stretched lifeless on the earth by their 
darts, arrows, and stones ; they poured boiling oil, melted pitch and fat from 
the walls, applied fire to the battering rams and other machines, and finally 
forced the assailants to retire to their camp. But when a cunning Lombard 
succeeded in undermining and throwing down the principal tower, and it became 
. Vol. ir. 30 



234 THE CRUSADES. 

apparent that the town must soon be captured, Manuel Butumltes, the agent 
for Alexis, made overtures to the besieged, and by a skilfully conducted nego- 
tiation secured the possession of the city to the emperor, and indemnity from 
plunder to the inhabitants. Alexis treated the Turks kindly, lest at some future 
time, when the crusaders were not there to protect him, he might be made to 
feel the effects of their vengeance ; to the chief crusaders he promised large 
presents, and to the knights and poor pilgrims he sent money and provisions ; 
but these were regarded as a poor compensation for the rich booty they had 
expected, and they were with difficulty withheld from assaulting the city 
anew.* 

With invincible industry and courage, the crusaders next set out upon 
the long and difhcult journey to Syria. The march was made in two col- 
umns, one headed by Bohemond, the other by Godfrey. Kilij Arslan having 
collected a great army for the defence of his territory, took advantage of the 
separation of the crusaders to attack the troops under Bohemond at Dorylaeum. 
That leader sent a messenger to inform Godfrey of the attack, and then pre- 
pared to repel it ; but he met with indifferent success until the arrival of a 
large reinforcement from the other army. The Mussulmans fled, leaving their 
camp to the victors. Robert of Paris and four thousand of the holy warriors 
fell in the action ; the Turks lost but three thousand men. The crusaders, 
however, obtained immense plunder from the bodies of the three thousand slain 
and the tents which the enemy had left. They were now rich. 

After this battle the Turks ceased to oppose the progress of the Christians 
by force, preferring to render the country untenable, by laying it waste, and 
destroying provisions and forage. The rapidity of the march, however, ren- 
dered this attempt fruitless ; and the crusaders were speedily encamped before 
Antioch. The siege of this city commenced at the beginning of winter and 
lasted seven months, during which time there was much discouragement among 
the crusaders ; and Stephen, Count of Blois, publicly exposed his fears by re- 
tiring with four thousand men to Alexandretta. This city, however, was finally 
captured, through the treachery of a certain Pyrrhus, who kept one of the 
principal towers. 

In personal combat, several chiefs of the crusaders signalized their bravery 
durino- this siege. Godfrey of Bouillon, Tancred, Hugh of Vermandois, Robert 
of Flanders, and Robert of Normandy, all receive unqualified praise from the 
pens of the chroniclers. The spirit in which the greater part of the chiefs 
wao-ed the war is well illustrated by an anecdote told of the last-mentioned 
chief. A bold Saracen warrior advanced to attack him ; with one blow of 
his sword he cleft the scull of the infidel from the crown to the shoulders. 
One part falling to the ground struck his foot. " I devote thy unpure soul," 
said the pious soldier, " to the punishments of hell." At the bridge of Antioch 

* Keightley. 



SIEGE OF ANTIOCH. 



235 




ROBERT OF NOBMA-NDT 
SLATING THE TURK. 



a colossal Turk presented himself in the thickest of 
the fight, and with his first stroke cut in pieces the 
buckler of Godfrey. The Christian hero arose in 
his stirrups, and, darting on his adversary, gave him 
such a blow that he cut him in two pieces. The 
upper part of the body fell to the earth ; but so 
firmly did the infidel sit, that his lower limbs re- 
mained in the saddle, and the horse carried them 
into the town. They were speedily made sensible 
of the importance of this oversight, by the approach 
of Kerbogah with a powerful reinforcement. Fear 
seized upon them, and desertions thinned their ranks. 
William the Carpenter, William and Alberic of 
Grantmenil, and many of less note, basely fled over 
the walls, and after encountering every kind of hard- 
ship, joined Stephen, Count of Chartres, at Alexan- 
dretta. From their representations, Stephen supposed 
that the expedition must end in destruction, and 
therefore commenced his retreat to Europe. In 
Phrygia, he met Alexis, who was advancing to aid 

his feudal subjects in the siege of Antioch with a combined army of Greek 
soldiers and crusaders newly arrived from Europe. The timid emperor gave 
up all for lost, and commenced his return to Constantinople, forcing the crusa- 
ders to accompany him. The news of the retreat of Alexis filled the starving 
defenders of Antioch with fear and despondency. To inspire the dispirited 
soldiers with fresh hope and enthusiasm, Raymond of Toulouse caused one 
Peter Barthelemy, a Lombard clerk, to affirm that St. Andrew had appeared 
to him in a vision, had carried him through the air to the church of St. Peter, 
and had shown him where was buried the very lance that had pierced the side 
of our Saviour on the cross. All day the soldiers relieved each other in vainly 
digging for the precious relic ; but when night had come to favour the opera- 
tions of mystery, Peter himself descended into the excavation and speedily de- 
clared that the sacred weapon was found. Raymond's chaplain seized and 
embraced it ; and hope and fanatical courage immediately took the place of 
despair and terror. " They highly prized," says Fuller, " this military relic 
of Christ; as if, by wounding of him, it had got virtue to wound his enemies, 
and counted it a pawn of certain victories." Peter the Hermit was sent on 
an embassy to Kerbogah to propose to him a peace, a personal combat, or a 
general battle. " Choose," said the intrepid ambassador, "the bravest of thy 
army, and make them fight against a similar number of crusaders — or fight 
thyself against one of the Christian princes — or give the signal for a general 
battle — and thou shalt learn what thy enemies are, and thou wilt know who 



236 THE CRUSADES. 

is the God that we serve." The confidence of the pilgrim astonished Kerbo- 
gah and procured for him an indignant answer ; but his companions so increased 
the wrath of the infidel chief, that nothing but their character as ambassadors 
saved them from destruction. 

Finally, the day of battle, the day of the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
dawned upon the impatient valour of the crusaders. The gates of Antioch were 
thrown open ; and the army marched forth in twelve divisions, in honour of the 
twelve apostles. Adhemar, the pious bishop of Puy, headed the fourth division, 
the most honourable, because it carried the holy lance. He walked at its head, 
clothed in the robes of the pontiffs, and surrounded by the symbols of religion 
and war. The venerable prelate, pausing before the bridge of the Orontes, 
addressed a pathetic discourse to the soldiers of the Cross, blessed them, and 
promised them the succour and recompense of Heaven. All the army shouted 
their approbation and assent. A part of the clergy advanced in the suite of 
the legate and chanted a martial hymn. The banks of the Orontes and the 
neighbouring mountains seemed to respond to these invocations, and resounded 
with the enthusiastic war-cry of the invaders, " God wills it ! God wills it I" 
The men who had lately awaited death in mute discouragement, rushed to the 
combat with the holy confidence of martyrs. In the heat of the action, when 
victory appeared about to declare for the enemy, three human figures, clad in 
white armour, and riding on white horses, appeared on the summit of the neigh- 
bouring hills. Adhemar called on the fainting troops to behold the aid which 
God had sent to them according to his promise. The cry of " God wills it!" 
was mingled with those of " St. George!" " St. Maurice!" and " St. Theodore!" 
the crusaders threw themselves with redoubled fury on the astonished infidels ; 
and before an hour had elapsed, nay, before the supernatural squadron had come 
to their aid, the superb army of the haughty Kerbogah was annihilated. 

So much booty was obtained by this glorious victory, that every one of 
the crusaders became richer than he was when he set out from home. The 
citadel of Antioch now surrendered ; and its governor and three hundred of his 
troops embraced the Christian faith, to the great joy of the crusaders. Bohe- 
mond received possession of the city as a reward for his services, and the army 
rested for a while from their labours. Wars of ambition next engaged the 
princes, and delayed the consummation of the original undertaking. Bohemohd 
and Raymond continued their jealousy ; and the latter began to assume a tone 
of superiority, from the fact of his being the keeper of the holy lance. Bohe- 
mond had ever been a sceptic on the subject, and he had widely promulgated 
his opinions. Some of his emissaries urged the warriors to demand of Peter 
Barthelemy the proof of his powers by the fiery ordeal, to which he had so 
confidently offered to submit the truth of his assertions. The wretched fanatic, 
having prepared himself by fasting and prayer, rushed into the flames, and was 
consumed. The attempts which Raymond afterwards made to support his re- 



STORMING OF JERUSALEM. 239 

putation for spiritual superiority by new miracles totally failed ; and the treachery 
which his conduct sometimes evinced, greatly lessened his authority. 

The people became anxious for the completion of their pilgrimage, and 
the chiefs laid aside the thoughts of war for individual ambition, to lead the 
victorious crusaders to the Holy City. At length the rising sun discovered to 
their admiring gaze the turrets of the City of David. Religious frenzy invaded 
every soul. The cry of " Jerusalem ! Jerusalem !" burst from every lip. They 
threw themselves on their knees, prostrated themselves in the dust, and kissed 
with pious reverence the earth which the feet of the Saviour of the World 
had pressed. They cried aloud for joy, they wept, they beat their breasts, and 
renewed in a holy transport the oath to free Jerusalem from the impious yoke 
of the Mussulmans. Nor was this fiery enthusiasm confined to the lower orders 
of the army ; it seized on the chiefs themselves. " All," says Fuller, " had 
much ado to manage so great a gladness." They rushed to the assault ; but 
their zeal would not serve for scaling-ladders, and they were repulsed. 

At the end of a month, machines had been constructed by the Genoese, 
and the courage of the besiegers, which had sunk under the burning sun, was 
again revived. They made the tour of the city, headed by the clergy, with 
bare feet, who pointed out to them and recalled to their remembrance every 
holy place. They were all enthusiasm, and the insults hurled at them from 
the walls by the infidels inflamed them the more. On the 14th of July, 1099, 
Godfrey led them to the attack. Every man promised himself victory or death ; 
but all their zeal and courage failed to awe the resolute defenders. The battle 
jaged furiously until it was ended by night. Watching and alarm occupied 
both parties until the day dawned, and hostilities were recommenced. Noon 
had arrived, the Christians were almost exhausted, the Turks had commenced 
the shouts of victory, and even the most courageous of the crusaders thouoht 
that Heaven had deserted them. When all seemed to be lost, they saw a cava- 
lier, clothed in shining armour, appear on the top of the Mount of Olives, and 
give them the signal of a renewed charge by waving his glittering buckler. 

Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to notice the heavenly messenger. " St. 
George has come to the succour of the Christians !" he cried ; and a myriad of 
defenders could not have saved the holy city from the hands of his impetuous 
followers. In an hour, Godfrey's tower rested against the inner wall ; chiefs 
and soldiers precipitated themselves together upon it, and the banner of the cross 
streamed from the walls. Tancred and the two Roberts forced the defences on 
their side, and Raymond entered by scaling the walls. Twenty-three thousand 
helpless Saracens paid with their lives the penalty of having spilt Christian 
blood, and insulted the soldiers of the cross. Godfrey himself set the example ; 
and so great was the carnage that " in the porch and temple of Solomon (the 
mosque of Omar) the crusaders rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the 
knees of their horses." This work accomplished, Godfrey turned his attention 
to others of less questionable virtue. Laying aside his armour, he clothed him- 



240 



THE CRUSADES. 




CAPTtIHE OF JERUSAT. EM. 



self in a linen mantle, and with bare head and naked feet, followed by the w'hole 
army, proceeded to throw himself at the door of the holy sepulchre, and render 
adoration to the Founder of Christianity. The ghost of the dead Adhemar came 
with the spirits of all who had fallen on the march from Europe to Jerusalem, 
to share in the holy joy of the survivors at the rescue of the Temple from the 
possession of the infidels. Now was the cup of triumph of Peter the Hermit 
filled. "It was remembered that he had taken charge of letters from the 
patriarch to the princes of Europe ; it w^as acknowledged that he had excited 
their piety, and inllamed their zeal ; and the multitude fell at his feet in grati- 
tude for his faithful discharge of his trust, praising God, who was glorified in 
his servant."* 

Godfrey of Bouillon was born in the village of Beryg, near Nivelle, in 
the year 1060. He was the son of Eustace II., Count of Boulogne, and of 
Ida, daughter of Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Bas-Lorraine. On the female 
side he was descended from Charlemagne. We have seen, in a former chapter, 
how he was distinguished in the War of the Investitures as a champion of the 
emperor ; and we find the promise there given of his abilities, fully borne out 
during the crusade. Taking the cross soon after the adjournment of the 



* Mills. 



ELECTION OF GODFREY. 241 

Council of Clermont, he marched at the head of the first body of disciplined 
crusaders to Constantinople, where the Emperor Alexis adopted him as his 
son. The battle of Nice, the taking of Antioch, the private wars which im- 
mediately followed that achievement, and the siege and capture of Jerusalem, 
had all combined to assign to him the first rank among the Christian warriors ; 
and when it was determined to retain the advantage gained by the expedition 
by again erecting in the Holy City the throne of David, the electors decreed, 
as to the most worthy, this throne to Godfrey of Bouillon. Each prince knew 
the rank and family of the others, but they could only judge of their private 
characters by the testimony of their servants. The domestics of Godfrey as- 
serted that his only fault was this, " that when matins were done, he would 
stay so long in the church, to know of the priests the meaning of every image 
and picture, that dinner at home w^as spoiled by his long tarrying. All 
admired hereat, that this man's worst vice should be so great a virtue, and 
they unanimously chose him for their king. He accepted the place, but 
refused the solemnity thereof, and would not wear a crown of gold there, 
where the Saviour of mankind had worn a crown of thorns."* 

Godfrey did not long survive the great fatigues of the first crusade. He 
expired the 18th of July, 1100, one year and three days after the taking of 
Jerusalem. They buried his remains with all the pomp of the religious cere- 
mony, within the bounds of Calvary, and near the sepulchre of Jesus Christ, 
which he had delivered by his valour. His address in combat, and the ex- 
traordinary force of his blows, made him the admiration of heroes. To the 
bravery and virtue of a true knight, he joined the simplicity of a cenobite. 
The estimation in which he was held by the army, may be known from the 
universal lamentation which prevailed when he met with a disaster in Asia 
Minor. When alone in the dense part of a forest, the duke heard the cries 
of a poor pilgrim, who had been attacked by a bear, whilst cutting wood. 
Godfrey hastened to his relief, when the bear quitted his victim to attack his 
new enemy. He seized the duke by the cloak and dragged him to the ground. 
His sword being entangled between his legs, Godfrey wounded himself severely 
in the thigh in attempting to draw it. He continued the fight, however, until 
the noise brought others to the spot. A knight named Hasequin despatched 
the monster with his sword, and the almost exhausted duke was borne to the 
camp, where the loss of a battle would scarcely have spread more consternation 
than the unhappy spectacle he afforded to the eyes of the Christians. 

While at Antiochetta, before setting out for Antioch, Godfrey had sent for- 
ward his brother Baldwin and the gallant Tancred to explore the country 
and measure their swords with the Moslems. Tancred with his division cap- 
tured the city of Tarsus ; but Baldwin forced him to give it up on the score 
of his inferiority. Tancred then retired from the city. Soon after, three hun- 

* FuUer's Holy War. 

Vol. II. 31 



242 



THE CRUSADES. 



f f^ ifi 






ill . ' ;/'>••.- --<^ 




GOnFHKT S CONTEST "WITH THE BSAll. 



dred soldiers of Bohemond, for whom Tancred had held the town, came to 
the gates, and craved food and shelter. Baldwin refused thera both ; but the 
people, more compassionate, lowered them provisions from the walls, and they 
encamped upon the ground. In the night, the Turks came upon them, and 
all fell victims to the inhumanity and selfishness of Baldwin. That chief 
soon after received a considerable accession to his numbers, out of a fleet of 
pirates from Flanders, Holland, and Friesland, who had ceased to plunder 
their fellow-Christians, and assumed the cross. Baldwin next advanced to 
Mamistra, which Tancred had captured and plundered. The Norman chief 
still smarted under the insult he had received at Tarsus, and when the 
soldiers of Baldwin began to plunder his new subjects, he interfered to pre- 
vent the injustice. His troops shared in his angry feelings, and the dispute 
was soon changed to a bloody combat. Richard of Salerno, who originated 
the fight, lost his life. His fall, considered as a judgment for his impiety, 
brought his fellows to see the folly of their conduct, and they made peace. 

Learning that Godfrey was sick from the wound he had given himself in 
his contest with the bear, Baldwin hastened back to the main army, that he 
might succeed to his power in case of his death. But he found Godfrey re- 



BALDWIN I. 243 

covered from his wound ; and he received so much censure from all for his treat- 
ment of the Norman pilgrims at Tarsus, that he became incensed, and resolved 
to leave the main army, and seek a new field for his ambition. At the sug- 
gestions of Pancratius, an Armenian Christian, he led a body of his own fol- 
lowers towards the Euphrates, and became the lord of a considerable territory, 
of which the city of Edessa was the capital. Several cities acknowledged his 
authority, and obeyed governors of his appointment ; and he entered upon the 
discharge of the duties of a sovereign with prudence and ability, and compro- 
mised the performance of his vow for the recovery of Jerusalem, by sending 
money and provisions to his brother. 

Godfrey, however, when on his death-bed, expressed his desire that Bald- 
win should succeed him on the throne of Jerusalem. Arnulf, who had inherited 
the great wealth of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and brother to WilUam the Con- 
queror, who had died on the crusade, joined his influence to that of the knights 
of the house of Bouillon, in favour of Baldwin. But Tancred, who had con- 
quered one kingdom for Bohemond, and the greater part of another for God- 
frey, desired that the crown of Jerusalem should- also grace the brows of his 
uncle. Bishop Daimbert and others supported his cause, and sent messengers to 
Bohemond to come quickly to the Holy City. But Bohemond was already a 
captive in the hands of the Turks, having lost his liberty in attempting to 
extend his dominions into Armenia. An attempt to fix the regal dignity upon 
Raymond of Toulouse failed ; and Baldwin, resigning Edessa to his relation, 
Baldwin du Bourg, came to take possession of the throne of Jerusalem. " As 
for that religious scruple," says Fuller, " which Godfrey made to wear a crown 
of gold where Christ wore one of thorns, Baldwin easily dispensed therewith. 
And surely in these things the mind is all ; a crown might be refused with 
pride, and worn with humility." 

Baldwin was immediately involved in a dispute with Tancred, who disre- 
garded a summons to appear at Jerusalem and do homage for some territories 
which he had captured from the Mussulmans. The people of Antioch, how- 
ever, summoned Tancred to take charge of his uncle's kingdom until he was 
released from captivity ; and he delivered the contested places to Baldwin, upon 
condition that, in the event of his return, he might enjoy them in feudal tenure. 
Baldwin was an able ruler ; and, under his guidance, the kingdom of Jerusalem 
rapidly acquired strength and extended its boundaries. The Mussulmans of 
Syria quailed beneath the frown of its king. Acre, Cesarea, Beritus and Sidon, 
all fell into his hands; but the Fatimite princes, supposing themselves to be 
beyond his reach, defied the power of the Christian king. 

Baldwin marched his army into Egypt, and met with some success ; but 
an old wound, which he had received in taking Ptolemais from the Syrians, 
broke out again, and caused his death. During his sickness, he endeavoured 
to animate the spirits of his friends, cautioned them to retire from Egypt, and 
recommended Baldwin du Bourg for his successor. He desired them not to 



244 THE CRUSADES. 

leave his body in Egypt, a subject for Moslem ridicule ; and when they repre- 
sented the impossibility of carrying a corpse at that season, he taught them how 
to embalm it. Fearing lest the enemy should acquire confidence on learning 
the king's death, the Christians dissembled their grief, and commenced a retreat 
to Jerusalem. They reached this city on Palm Sunday, as Baldwin du Bourg 
and his Edessenes were coming to celebrate the feast of Easter. These joined 
the melancholy train, and the body of the deceased king was borne on towards 
the sepulchre of his brother. According to an established custom, all the 
Christian people, headed by the patriarch, descended on Palm Sundays, in a 
procession, from the Mount of Olives, carrying palm-branches and singing can- 
ticles in celebration of the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Whilst this proces- 
sion traversed the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the coffin of Baldwin, carried by his 
companions, appeared suddenly in the midst of those who were chanting the 
hymns. A sudden, long, and mournful silence was followed by loud lamenta- 
tions. All the people followed the funeral procession to Calvary, where the 
remains of Baldwin were deposited with great pomp, in a tomb of white marble, 
near the sepulchre of Godfrey. (A.D. 1118.) 

Baldwin's remains were no sooner committed to the tomb than a council 
of the barons and prelates was assembled for the purpose of choosing a suc- 
cessor. Some urged the appointment of Eustace, the brother of the deceased 
sovereign; but that prince was in Europe. Joscelyn de Courtenay, once at- 
tached to the family of Baldwin du Bourg, had quarrelled with that ruler, and 
left his service for that of King Baldwin I. The council was not a little 
surprised, therefore, when suddenly rising, and setting aside the claims of 
Eustace, on account of the necessity of selecting a ruler who might take the 
sceptre at once into his hand, he urged the claims of his enemy, Baldwin du 
Bourg, as the near relative of the late king, and the most able, valiant, and 
wise of the Christian princes of the East. When the members of the council 
heard the enemy of Baldwin advance such sentiments, they hastened to aquiesce 
in them ; Baldwin du Bourg was elected to the throne, and generously re- 
warded the disinterestedness of Joscelyn, by conferring upon him the whole of 
the principality of Edessa. 

Baldwin II. reigned from 1118 to 1131 ; distinguished by the variety of 
the success attending his arms. Roger, regent of Antioch for young Bohe- 
mond, was captured in a rash engagement with the enemy ; Baldwin marched 
to rescue him at the head of a small army, and gained a decided victory. 
But Balak, a petty king of the Turks, succeeded in carrying Joscelyn into 
captivity, and Baldwin, coming to deliver him, met with the same fate. Jos- 
celyn, however, escaped from confinement, joined his arms with those of 
Eustace Grenier, the regent of Jerusalem, defeated Balak, and slew him with 
his own hands. He then captured and added Tyre to the dominions of 
Baldwin, who was released from captivity on condition of paying a hundred 
thousand raichaelets. " But," says Fuller, " he paid the Turks with their own 



BALDWIN III, 



247 



money, or, which was as good coin, with the money of the Saracens, van- 
quishing Barsequen their captain, at Antioch, 1125 : and not long after, he 
conquered Doldequin, another of their great commanders, at Damascus." He 
failed, however, to capture Damascus. Shortly before his death, which happened 
on the 22d of August, he renounced the world. He was buried in the tomb of 
his predecessors. 

The second Baldwin was succeeded on the throne, A. D. 1131, by his 
son-in-law Fulco, or Fulk, Count of Anjou, a French cavalier, whom religion 
and restlessness drove to the Holy Land in the prime of his life. Baldwin 
sought a husband for his daughter, and Fulk was selected as the happy 
bridegroom, the envied heir to the throne. He reigned until 1144, and left 
the state nearly as he found it. 

Baldwin III., the eldest son of the late king, succeeded him on the throne. 
He was at first placed under the authority of his mother, being but thirteen 
years old ; but he early cast off her restraint, and swayed the sceptre alone. 
During his reign, the Saracens under Zenghi conquered the city of Edessa, 
and the Christians of the West prepared for a new crusade. 

Meanwhile Raymond of Toulouse had been succeeded in his principaHty 
at Tortosa, by his son Bertrand, who added Tripoli to the other possessions 
of his father. Bertrand was followed by his son Pontius, a descendant by his 
mother's side from Eudes of Burgundy. When Tancred died, in the year 
1112, he recommended his wife to bestow her hand upon Pontius ; and after 
his decease, she complied with the recommendation. Pontius lost his life by 
the swords of the Mussulmans; and his successor, Raymond, was made a cap- 
t'.ve by them. 

When the great Bohemond was 
a prisoner in the hands of the Arme- 
nian Prince Danischmend, the Emperor 
Alexis tried to obtain possession of his 
person by bribing Danischmend. But 
the Armenian preferred the alliance of 
Bohemond to that of Alexis, and the 
Prince of Antioch was allowed to re- 
sume the direction of his government. 
His faithful nephew had considerably 
enlarged his kingdom, but the hostility 
of the Greek emperor threatened its 
overthrow. Daimbert, flying from Je- 
rusalem, came to Antioch, and resolved 
to continue his journey to Europe. 
Bohemond determined to accompany 

him thither, and seek aid from the Western princes. He was kindly received 
by Philip, King of France, who gave him one of his daughters in marriage, 




ALEXIS COMNENUS. 



248 



THE CRUSADES. 



and betrothed another to the gallant Tancred. Five thousand horse, and forty 
thousand footmen followed him on his return to Antioch, and aided him in an 
open war with Alexis. The difficulties were finally arranged by a treaty 
between the two princes, and the greater part of Bohemond's army marched 
on to the Holy Land. Bohemond himself returned to Apulia, where he died 
the next year, 1118, just as he was about setting out on a journey for An- 
tioch. 

ANCRED, at his death, bequeathed the regency to 
his kinsman, Roger, son of Richard, Count of Capua, 
and Seneschal of Apulia. Roger died by the swords 
of the Saracens, in 1119, and Baldwin II. for a time 
held possession of the principality ; but Bohemond 
the younger arriving from Italy, claimed and received 
from him his patrimony. Bohemond married Alice, 
the daughter of Baldwin, who aspired to the sove- 
reignty when she was left regent for her daughter 
Constantia. Baldwin therefore caused that princess, 
though but a child, to be married to Raymond of 
Poitiers, the youngest son of William VII., Duke 
of Aquitaine. A contest speedily arose between 
Raymond and Alexis, with regard to the dependance 
of the principality of Antioch upon the throne of 
Constantinople. This continued from 1137 till 1142, 
when Alexis entered Syria, drove back some hostile Turks, and demanded com- 
plete sovereignty over Antioch. The chief dignitaries of the place waited on 
him, and informed him that even if Raymond and his wife surrendered their 
rio'hts, the people would choose another sovereign. The offended emperor then 
wasted the country, and retired to Cilicia, where he died before he could renew 
his hostilities. 

Joscelyn du Courtenay had become sole lord of Edessa when Baldwin du 
Bourg mounted the throne of Jerusalem. He was a lion in battle, and met 
his death on the field. He had been wounded while besieging a castle near 
Aleppo, and lay sick of his wound when the enemy renewed hostilities. His 
son headed the army, but decUned to meet the Moslems. Joscelyn caused him- 
self to be carried in a litter to the field, when the report of his presence ter- 
rified the enemy into a retreat, and the old hero died giving God thanks that 
the terror of his name had produced as powerful an effect as any of his old 
achievements.* 

The valiant and skilful Zenghi had been chosen emir by the Moslems, in 
the hope that his prowess might turn back the tide of European conquest; 
and his actions in the field fidly justified the choice. A feud between the 




* Mills's Crusades. 



FALL OF EDESSA. 



251 



Counts of Edessa and Antioch, offered an opportunity of striking a blow, and 
Zenghi led his troops towards Edessa. The Prince of Antioch gave no help, 
and but few soldiers came from Jerusalem to fight the battles of the son of 
Joscelyn. That prince was weak and effeminate, abandoning himself to pleasure 
in the town of Turbessel, while Zenghi was overturning his kingdom. The 
citizens of Edessa withstood his attacks for seventeen days ; the priest fio-ht- 
ing beside the meanest soldier, and the bishop blessing and encouraging the 
people. But the help, which they expected from without, came not. The 
Saracens entered the breaches, and the firm defence was punished by a dreadful 
massacre of men, women, and children. 

"^NGHI was assassinated during a 
petty war with a Mussulman prince ; 
and his sons, Saphadin and Noured- 
din, shared his kingdom. During the 
absence of their ruler from Edessa, 
the Christians in that place opened a 
communication \vith their former mas- 
ter in Turbessel, in consequence of 
which the prince suddenly appeared 
in Edessa, and forced the Turkish gar- 
rison to take refuge in the citadel. 
Noureddin flew to save his followers ; 
and the Christians, finding it impos- 
sible to keep possession of the city, 
resolved to cut their way through 
the enemy. But they were surrounded 
and attacked on all sides, and very few escaped the sabres of the Moslems. 
Thus Edessa remained in the hands of Noureddin, and the paleness which had 
spread over the star of Mohammedanism passed away. 

Horror and consternation reigned among the Christians of Europe when 
the news of the fall of Edessa arrived. The helpless condition of their brethren 
in the East, and the savage ferocity of the Moslems, were depicted in glowing 
colours. They seemed to see the Turks swimming in the blood of the thirty 
thousand slaughtered Christians at Edessa, and an ardour for vengeance became 
universal. 

The Emperor Conrad III,, and Louis VII. of France, headed a move- 
ment which was a second time to lead Europe against Asia. By the com- 
mand of the King of France, a parliament of the dignitaries of his kingdom 
was assembled at Vezelay. The concourse was too great to be contained 
within the bounds of this city, and the people spread themselves in an amphi- 
theatre to the foot of the mountain in which it is situated. Pope Eugenius III. 
had been invited by Louis to preach the crusade ; but other affairs had de- 
tained him in Italy, and the task devolved on St, Bernard, then the oracle 




252 



THE CRUSADES. 



of Christianity. The holy man, though worn in body with his austerities, and 
appearing to belong already to the tomb, found strength sufficient to accom- 
plish his grand mission. His eloquence was applauded by the barons and 
the chevaliers ; the king threw himself at the feet of the holy man, and de- 
manded the cross in the sight of all the people ; and the very hill shook with 
the shout of " God wills it !" bursting from the thousands of knights, the flower 
of European chivalry. The supply of crosses which had been provided for the 
occasion proved insufficient, and the pious saint tore his garments to make 
new ones. Queen Eleanor followed the example of her husband, and vowed 
to accomplish with him the great expedition. 

Louis having completed his preparations, went to the abbey of St. Denis, 
to take from its altar the consecrated banner, and the pilgrim's staff and wallet. 
He received them, with a benediction, from the hands of Pope Eugenius him- 
self, who had come to take part in the solemn and impressive ceremonies. 
He then set out at the head of a hundred thousand warriors, to march through 
Germany to Constantinople, where he had been preceded by the other crusa- 
ders. (A. D. 1147.) 

Learning that the Christians of Western Europe were again about to seek 
the Holy Land, the Greek Emperor Manuel fortified his cities, and evinced a 
determination to treat them as his father had done the mobs which followed 
Peter the Hermit. Conrad wanted the firmness and decision of Godfrey de 
Bouillon ; but Manuel was a son worthy of his grandfather Alexis. The 
ferocity, barbarism, and ignorance of the German soldiers, caused them much 
suffering in their passage through the Byzantine dominions ; and Conrad was 
so offended at what he deemed the duplicity and arrogance of Manuel, that 
he crossed the Bosporus without a meeting. 

HE wily Grecian treated Louis with every mark of 
respect, that the inhospitality shown towards the 
Germans might appear to have been caused by their 
own brutality. Harmony reigned almost without in- 
terruption between the Greeks and the French ; and 
the gates of Constantinople, which frowned in scornful 
defiance upon the Germans, were thrown open to their 
more polished auxiliaries. While Manuel thus enter- 
tained Louis and his followers, his subjects were ac- 
tively engaged in playing false to the host of the 
emperor, in its passage through Bithynia. They cor- 
rupted the coin with which they purchased goods of 
tl e pilgrims, and cheated them whenever an opportu- 
nity offered — mingling chalk with their meal, and practising mariy other shameful 
frauds. The Greek guides conducted them through deserts, where they suf- 
fered from fiimine, or led them into the midst of the hosts which the sultan 
had assembled for their destruction. But a tenth part of the number of fol- 




PASSAGE OF THE MEANDER. 255 

lowers with which Conrad had crossed the Danube, effected a junction with 
the soldiers of Louis. The two armies then pursued the march together ; but 
near Ephesus, to which they directed their course, Conrad received letters 
from the emperor and empress, couched in the most affectionate terms, and in- 
viting him to recruit from his toils by spending the winter in Constantinople. 
He gladly accepted the friendship he had before despised, and received the most 
cordial treatment in the Imperial City, his power having been so reduced as to 
render him no longer formidable. 

Louis, left to bear all the burdens of the expedition, led his army through 
Asia Minor, to the banks of the Meander. The enemy were encamped on the 
opposite shore, and galled with their arrows all who attempted to procure water 
from the river. The French burned to cross and join battle with them ; and 
when, after some days, they succeeded in finding a ford, they crowded into the 
water, and gained the opposite bank. The Moslems attempted to drive them 
back with the sword and lance, but they were repulsed on all sides. 

Louis himself protected the passage of the army, and displayed signal 
valour in the combat on the opposite shore. He pursued the Turks to the 
mountains, and the banks of the river " were sown with dead enemies." The 
passage of the Meander was the first triumph of the crusade ; and the loss w^as 
so slight, that the pilgrims attributed it to the intervention of Divine Pro- 
vidence. 

By it, the crusaders were put in possession of Laodicea ; and their next 
step was to cross the mountains between that city and Satalia. The advanced 
guard entered imprudently into the defiles of Cadmus, and w^hen the remainder 
of the army attempted to follow them, the Turks suddenly attacked them from 
the mountain tops, and gained great advantages, notwithstanding the prodigies 
of a long and heroic resistance. In this action the king lost his escort ; but 
bold, agile, and vigorous, he seized the branches of a tree w^hich grew conve- 
nient, and sprang upon the highest part of a rock. A great number of the 
enemy rushed to secure his person, whilst others showered arrows on him from 
a distance. But his corslet happily defended him from their weapons ; and 
those who dared to approach within striking distance were punished for their 
presumption with the loss of their arms or heads. Ignorant of his rank, and 
fearful of his prowess, his enemies gave up the attack, and departed to secure 
the spoils of the battle-field before night. Louis took advantage of the dark- 
ness to make his way to the advanced guard, who were mourning him as slain. 
During the twelve days which were occupied in reaching Satalia, the crusaders 
were four times attacked by the Turks, and four times vigorously repulsed them. 
From this city, Louis VII. embarked for Antioch, with the chiefs of his army, 
leaving the remainder to march to Cilicia, under the charge of Thierry of 
Flanders. But the Governor of Satalia proved faithless to his treaty ; and the 
Turks destroyed nearly all of the unfortunate pilgrims. Louis was well re- 
ceived by Prince Raymond of Antioch, who wished to induce him to enter into 



256 



THE CRUSADES, 




LOUIS VII. ON MOUNT CADMUS. 



his own ambitious schemes; but though he united the persuasions and threats 
of Queen Eleanor to his own representations, nothing could move the king 
from his determination to proceed to the Holy City. 

At Jerusalem he found the Emperor Conrad, with the Dukes of Saxony 
and Bavaria, and the ruined German band. Manuel had encouraged and as- 
sisted them to proceed thither, preferring to allow Conrad to encounter new 
perils and dangers, rather than return to his own dominions without further 
loss. The new European commanders met the princes and prelates of Asia 
Minor in council at Ptolemais, and the champions of Christianity were there 
engaged to attempt the rehef of Damascus from the yoke of the Moslems. 
(A. D. 1148.) 



SIEGE OF DAMASCUS. 



257 




HE king and the emperor signalized their valour 
» during the siege by many brilliant but useless exploits. 
The town was on the point of capitulation, when a 
dispute arose as to who should possess the prize. It 
was at length adjudged to Thierry of Flanders ; but 
the barons of Palestine were offended at this, and 
commenced negotiations with the infidels. The be- 
siegers moved their camp from the neighbourhood of 
the breaches to a sterile spot, where the defences 
were very strong; and the sons of Zenghi succeeded 
in throwing fresh squadrons into the town. The 
besiegers withstood the sallies of the new garrison for a short time, then broke 
up the camp and returned, sorrowful and disgraced, to Jerusalem. 

Conrad soon returned to Europe ; and Louis followed him, about a year 
afterwards. Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, who had acted as regent during the 
absence of Louis, suddenly astonished the French by attempting to restore the 
fortunes of the' Holy Land, at a time when all thoughts of a crusade had 
ceased. Failing to arouse his countrymen, he resolved, though seventy years 
of age, to lead the vassals of St. Denis thither ; hoping that, wdth the favour 
of heaven, they alone would accomplish more than all the legions of the king 
and the emperor. But a fever cut short his longings for military fame : he 
died at St. Denis, and his successor in the abbacy loved not to handle the 
sword. Thus the Christian States in the East were left without hope of suc- 
cour, though advancing rapidly towards dissolution. 

The councils of the chiefs there presented nothing but feuds and rivalry, 
in which Baldwin IV., the seventh king of Jerusalem, and his brother-in-law, 
Guy de Lusignan, bore prominent parts. Baldwin was a leper ; and the lords 
of Syria deprived him of his power, and gave the kingdom to his son, limited 
by a regent. But at the end of three years, both the Baldwins died ; and Guy 
de Lusignan took advantage of the troubles which ensued, to seize upon the 
throne of Jerusalem. 

Two Egyptians having engaged in a contest for the dignity of sultan of 
their own country, a title which the ministers of the Fatimite caliphs had ven- 
tured to assume, one of them, named Shawer, fled to the court of the Turkish 
prince, Noureddin, for aid. His opponent, Dargham, obtained a promise of as- 
sistance from Almeric, King of Jerusalem, who led an array to Egypt in person. 
Noureddin sent thither Shiracouch, and his nephew, Saladin, two valiant and 
hardy leaders. Dargham was slain ; and Shawer quarrelled with his Turkish 
auxiliaries, and joined his arms with those of the Christians against them. The 
war w^as ended by a peace, and Almeric returned to prepare for the conquest 
of Egypt for himself. He attempted it, but failed ; and Saladin soon after de- 
throned Shawer, and made his uncle sultan. (A. D. 1169.) Shiracouch enjoyed 
his new dignity but two months ; at the end of that time he died, and Saladin 
Vol. IL 33 



258 THE CRUSADES. 

succeeded him. Saladin soon after revolted from the Fatimite caliph, the ca- 
liph of Bagdad was everywhere acknowledged as the head of the Mohamme- 
dan failh, and the great Moslem schism was healed. Noureddin soon after 
founil reason to suspect the allegiance of Saladin to himself, and commenced 
a journey to Egypt; but he died on the way, A. D. 1171, and Saladin imme- 
diately commenced the consolidation of the Turkish power in Syria and Egypt, 
a politic measure, the ellocts of which were but too severely felt by the Latins. 
Almeric attempted to profit by the confusion which immediately followed the 
death of Noureddin, but death put an end to his own schemes. The Syrian 
affairs of Saladin, however, prevented him from giving much annoyance to the 
Christians during the feeble reig^ns of Baldwin IV. and Baldwin V. 

Reginald, Lord of Karac and Montreal, on the Arabian frontiers of Pales- 
tine, disregarded the treaties existing between the King of Jerusalem and Sala- 
din, and perpetually plundered the subjects of the Moslem prince. Saladin 
swore to avenge himself upon the robber ; and when he found the court of 
Guy de Lusignan too wTak to afford him redress, he assembled his army, 
and avowed his intention of capturing the Holy City itself. The first im- 
portant events of the war occurred at Tiberias, the residence of the wife of 
the Count of Tripoli. That city being besieged by Saladin, the count an- 
nounced to Lusionan his willino;ness to allow it to fall into the hands of the 
enemy, and advised him to act altogether on the defensive, as the want of the 
necessaries of life would undoubtedly force the Moslems to retire. But by the 
advice of the grand master of the Templars, Lusignan resolved to pursue the 
opposite course. All the principal cities were emptied of their garrisons for 
the i)urpose of forming an army, and the King of Jerusalem hastened to en- 
counter his adversary. A battle lasting two days was fought in the plain 
near Tiberias, in which the superior numbers of the Moslems triumphed, 
and the Christians were massacred. The piece of the true cross was taken 
from its possessors, and the king and the principal cavaliers remained prisoners. 
Lusignan had his life spared by the conqueror ; but two hundred and thirty 
Templars were massacred after the battle. 

This decisive victory having been achieved, Saladin began to follow it 
up with vigour. Acre, Jaffa, Cesarea, Beritus, and Tiberias fell, and he laid 
siege to Tyre. The citizens would have delivered that city into his hands; 
but Conrad of Montferrat, whose father was a prisoner in the hands of Sala- 
din, imparted to them a portion of his unconquerable spirit, and they made 
a successful resistance. Ascalon next capitulated, and the conqueror soon after 
planted his standard beneath the walls of Jerusalem. In fourteen days the 
walls near the gate of St. Stephen's were undermined, and the garrison gave 
way to despair. They offered to capitulate, and the generous Moslems allowed 
them moderate terms. (October 2d, 1187.) The nobles and military were to be 
sent to Tyre, and the Latin Christians to become slaves unless redeemed at 
a certain rate. The queen and her retinue of ladies passed through the enemy's 



FALL OF JERUSALEM. 259 

camp with the miserable inhabitants. Saladin met and pitied them, and with 
the courteous generosity which always distinguished him, granted their request 
for the release of their fathers, husbands, and brothers, who had been held in 
captivity since the battle of Tiberias. 

And now the infidels were again masters of the Holy City and the Se- 
pulchre. The flag of Islamism had replaced the standard of the cross on the 
mountain of Zion. The conquerors tore the great cross from the church of 
the Sepulchre, and dragged it through the streets with ropes; they broke in 
pieces all the bells of the churches, and converted them all into mosques ex- 
cept the church of the Resurrection. Four camel-loads of Damascene rose- 
water were employed in purifying the mosque of Omar ; " as if," says Fuller, 
" Saladin would wash it from profaneness, whilst he profaned it with his 
washing." The Saracen emirs imitated the noble generosity of their chief, 
and alleviated the misfortunes of many who were too poor to pay the stipu- 
lated ransom. Malek-el-Adel begged a thousand Christian prisoners from the 
sultan, and set them at liberty ; and the emirs of Edessa and Beer claimed 
those born on their territories as their property; and when they had obtained 
them, they set them free. Seven hundred of the poor obtained their liberty 
from the sultan at the suit of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and as many more 
at the request of Bakan, who had commanded the garrison during the siege. 
Then Saladin, who, as it has been justly observed, was a barbarian only in 
name, emulated the magnanimity of the emirs, and declared that in a certain 
day the gate of St. Lazarus should be open from sunrise till sunset, and that 
all poor Christians who came there, should be allowed to go free, if, on being 
searched, they were found to have no property about them. Everywhere in 
the Moslem territories the unfortunate Christians were treated with kindness 
and pity; but their fellow- worshippers proved themselves unworthy of the name 
they bore. They frequently refused them admittance into the cities, and 
robbed them of the effects which the generosity of Saladin and his soldiers 
had spared. 

With Jerusalem fell the cities and territories of Ascalon, Laodicea, Gabala, 
Sidon, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. But the spirit of freedom, and the valour 
of Conrad of Montferrat, again preserved the city of Tyre. Shortly after the 
capitulation of Ascalon, Guy de Lusignan and several of his principal chiefs 
obtained their freedom, after the King of Jerusalem had renounced to Saladin 
his claim to that title. He now took the road for Tyre, and announced his 
intention of entering it as its sovereign ; but the people resolved that he should 
rule it who had defended it so valiantly. The valour of the citizens of Tri- 
poli resisted the arms of Saladin, and he turned to the more easy conquest 
of the territories of Antioch. Twenty-five towns submitted, and Antioch itself 
became tributary to the Mussulmans. 

Unparalleled consternation was spread through Europe by the news of 
the battle of Tiberias, and the fall of Jerusalem. Pope Urban III. died of 



260 



THE CRUSADES, 




*52f^'^' 



grief, when it was communicated to him. His successor immediately called 
upon all the princes and people of the West for vengeance, and the celebrated 
historian, William, Archbishop of Tyre, a witness of the catastrophe, went to 
preach the crusade in France, England, and Germany. Several councils were 

held to promote his object, at which the es- 
tablishment of a general contribution, known 
<is the Saladin tithe, was decreed. The 
German emperor, Frederic Barbarossa, set 
out for the Holy Land with an army of a 
hundred thousand men, which, like those 
which had preceded it, was nearly de- 
stroyed in traversing Asia. (A. D. 1185.) 
Philip Augustus of France, and his brother 
m arms, Richard Coeur-de-Lion of Eng- 
'<ind, abandoned the plan of leading their 
lollowers by land to Palestine. One em- 
barked at Genoa, and the other at Mar- 
seilles, and both passed the winter together 
in Sicily. Richard had been affianced to 
Alice of France ; but he now contracted a 
marriage with Berengaria of Navarre ; and 
this, with national animosity, and the artifices of the usurper, Tancred, alie- 
nated the two monarchs and their armies. The two fleets put to sea sepa- 
rately ; and Philip arrived first at Acre. Richard landed at Limisso, conauered 
Cyprus from the Greek emperor, Isaac Comnenus, and soon after ceded it to 
Guy de Lusignan, in exchange for the crown of Jerusalem. 

Frederic Barbarossa had met with more success in the commencement 
of his hostilities with the Saracens than any of the early crusaders. He de- 
feated the Turks in a general engagement, and took Iconium. But when, on 
the 10th of June, 1190, the array was crossing the river Cydnus, the bold 
old warrior, to whom the passage over the bridge was far too slow, dashed 
with his war-horse into the stream, in order to overtake more speedily his 
son, who led the van. But the current overpowered the veteran, and bore 
him away ; and when assistance could be rendered, he was found to be 
dead. His death was regarded as a punishment for his having warred with 
the popes by some, who thus gave occasion to the pious and loyal Fuller 
to wonder " how they, seeing the emperor drowned in a ditch, durst adventure 
themselves into the wonderful depths of God's counsel." 

The Duke of Suabia, Frederic's second son, now took command of the array. 
He carried his father's bones to Tyre, and there interred them. The Turks an- 
noyed his army on the raarch, and many of the pilgrims forgot their vows, and 
left the army at Antioch. The remainder marched under the Duke of Suabia to 
Acre. 



SIEGE OF ACRE. 



261 




HILE the hosts of Europe 
were slowly assembling, 
the Christians in the Holy 
Land, encouraged by the 
example of Conrad of 
Montferrat, wholly reco- 
vered from their panic, 
and joined the standard 
of the King of Jerusalem. 
Greeks, Latins, and Sy- 
rians, Templars and Hos- 
pitallers, all were found 
in the army, with which 
he boldly laid siege to 
Acre, the key of all Pales- 
^ tine, (1189.) Saladin felt 
. so perfectly secure in the 
possession of his con- 
quests, that he did not at 
first attempt to overwhelm his foe ; and the army of Lusignan was so speedily 
reinforced by the Europeans, who preceded the main armies, that Saladin found 
it almost impossible to throw succour into the town when he came to its re- 
lief. So well was the Christian camp fortified, that the Saracens were wont 
to say that not even a bird could enter it. The engagements which happened 
between the two armies in the plain, were very sanguinary and obstinate. 
But the want of discipline on the part of the Christians, and the activity of 
Saladm and his oflicers, prevented the rapid progress of the siege; and the 
naval forces were so equally balanced that the Christians could not prevent 
the Egyptians from succouring the city, nor the Saracens prevent the commu- 
nication of the crusaders' camp with Europe. 

The heroic resistance of the besieged, and the intrepid perseverance of the 
crusaders, had continued twenty-two months, when Richard and Philip Augus- 
tus reached the camp of their allies. More than once did Saladin advance to 
attack them in their camp ; but the rampart of European lances always proved 
too firm to be broken by the efforts of his cavalry. Frequent attempts to 
scale the fortifications were made also by the Christians; but, overwhelmed 
by stones and arrows, and galled by the Greek fire, they filled with their dead 
bodies the trenches of the city. 

The most memorable feat of arms took place during an attack made by 
the soldiers of King Philip upon the walls of the town ; an attack which failed 
for want of support on the part of the English. The machines of the be- 
siegers had caused the foundations of a tower to shake, and its walls to totter, 
and a body of Frenchmen rushed to assault it, but were repulsed. 



262 



THE CRUSADES. 




ALBEBIC CLEUE.JI Al 
THE SIEGE OF ACRE. 



^^Y^^HIS happened under the eye of Alberic Clement, 
the marshal of King Philip. Animated by a gene- 
rous resolution, the young hero exclaimed, " I will 
die to-day ; or, by the grace of God, I will enter 
into Acre." He seized a ladder, gained the top 
of the wall, and killed with his sword several of 
the enemy. His bold example was followed by too 
many of the soldiers. The ladder by which they 
attempted to join him would not support their weight, 
and they fell to the ground, Alberic, left alone on 
the wall, fought fiercely for a time ; but the arrows 
and darts from a thousand foes pierced the joints 
of his armour, and he found the death he had so 
bravely dared. But his fate proved a stimulus to 
exertion ; and the camp of Philip produced many 
whose names are worthy to be recorded beside that 
of Alberic Clement. 

The English and the Pisans soon after at- 
tempted to enter the town over the ruins of a fallen 
tower ; but their valour could not surpass that of the undaunted defenders, 
and they were forced to retire. The results of these separate attacks proved 
to the two kings the necessity of a united action ; and they reconciled their 
differences, and agreed that one should defend the camp whilst the other 
attacked the town. For it had been the custom, whenever an assault was 
attempted, for the besieged to sound their drums and cymbals as a signal to 
Saladin, who flew to attack the half-deserted camp of the Christians. But 
two years of unremitted hostility had reduced the garrison to the last ex- 
tremities, and they sent ambassadors to the camp of the Christians to 
arrange the terms of a capitulation. The terms offered were not such as 
they could accept, and they renewed the war with the utmost desperation. 
From their ramparts and half-ruined towers, says one of their historians, 
they threw themselves upon their assailants as stones detached from the sum- 
mit of a mountain. But these prodigies of valour could not long sustain 
them, and a new attempt to capitulate was more successful. The city, 
with all the arms, the munitions, and the treasures which it contained, were 
to be given up, with five hundred Christian captives ; the true cross was 
to be resigned, with one thousand captives, and two hundred knights, selected 
from those who were in the hands of Saladin ; and unless that prince paid to 
Richard and Philip the sum of two hundred thousand bezants of gold within 
forty days, the inhabitants of Acre should be at the mercy of the con- 
querors. Philip and Richard then took joint possession of the city, and the 
banners of France and England were displayed together on its walls. Richard 
took up his residence in the royal palace, and Philip occupied the house of 



^^ir^^^^^^ ^^ ^g ^g^g^^^^^^ ^? M ? Mv^^^^^>^^rk ^^^^ 




BATTLE OF AZOTUS, 



265 



the Templars. (A. D. 1191.) The disarmed garrison marched out of the 
city with their wives and chiklren ; but they did not appear ashamed of their 
misfortunes, the piide of their countenances was not lost, and their intrepid 
air appeared like the result of victory. 

A few weeks after the capitulation of Acre, Philip announced his in- 
tention of returning to Europe, and Richard gave his consent ; but made 
him promise not to make war on the English till at least forty days after 
the return of their king. Philip w^ent to Tyre, and thence sailed for Eu- 
rope. Richard repaired the walls and houses of Acre, and the clergy conse- 
crated anew the altars. But Saladin did not return the wood of the cross, 
and was probably unable to pay the ransom of the prisoners in Richard's 
hands. He endeavoured, however, to move Richard to mercy toward them ; 
but the lion-hearted king proved how destitute he was of the noble generosity 
of the lord of the woods, by murdering, in cold blood, all the poorer class 
of prisoners, and reserving the emirs and others for whom a high ransom was 
expected. Saladin made a vow never to spare the life of a Christian who 
should fall into his hands ; but the prisoners in his camp who were expecting 
freedom, were sent safely back to Damascus.* 

At the head of thirty thousand French, German, and English soldiers, 
Richard set out from Acre, and marched towards the south. Clouds of the 
Saracenic cavalry hung round the army ; and the Templars in the van, and 
Hospitallers in the rear, were often insufficient for the protection of the co- 
lumns. Near Azotus Richard was obliged to come to a general engagement. 
He headed the centre of the army in person ; the 
right wing was commanded by James D'Avesnes, the 
left by the Duke of Burgundy. The right wings of 
both armies were driven back ; but the Saracens were 
unable to make any serious impressions upon the 
" soldiers of iron." King Richard showed himself 
everywhere, and everywhere streams of blood and 
disordered squadrons marked his passage. When the 
enemy were beginning to fall into confusion, he ordered 
a charge to be sounded on the trumpets, the infantry 
wheeled behind the cavalry, and the knights rushed 
forth upon the foe. In a little time the army of 
Saladin was dispersed, and flying in all directions. 
Some fled to the . mountains, others threw themselves 
into the sea. Returning from the pursuit, the Christians 
suddenly found themselves attacked by Faki-ed-deen, .-' 
the nephew of Saladin, at the head of a reserve corps 
of twenty thousand men. The Moslem prince fought 




RICHARD I. AT AZOTUS. 



* Keiglilloy's Cmsades. 



Vol. II. 



34 



266 THE CRUSADES. 

with fury and desperation, and the fortune of the day would have been 
changed had not Richard arrived in season to succour his panic-stricken 
warriors. In this battle, Salailin lost more than eight thousand of his 
soldiers, and thirty-two of his emirs.* The victory cost Richard only a 
thousand men ; but it was dearly gained by the loss of the heroic champion 
of the cross, James d'Avesnes. After losing an arm and a leg, he had con- 
tinued to fight ; and he cried when dying, " Richard, revenge my death." 
The day after the battle, he was buried at Azotus, in the church of the 
Virgin. (A. D. 1191.) 

Richard now found his progress unmolested ; Saladin having drawn off 
his soldiers to disuiantle all the fortresses in Palestine. The enemy, he 
reasoned, would thereby be kept in the field, and his strength might be ex- 
hausted by frequent skirmishes. Richard wished to press forward to Ascalon ; 
but the army were anxious to restore the fortifications of Jaffa. While these 
were being completed, Richard amused himself in falconry, regardless of the 
enemy. On one of these occasions, he laid himself upon the ground, and went 
to sleep. The noise of a party of approaching Turks broke his slumbers, and 
he mounted his horse and put them to flight ; but as he pursued them with 
his knights he fell into an ambush. Four of his party were slain ; and the 
Turks had laitl hands upon the king himself, when William Dcspreaux an- 
nounced himself to be Richard, and the Turks secured him whilst the king 
escaped. The gallant knight was not long after exchanged for ten Turks. 

When the fortifications of Jaffa were completed, a negotiation was re- 
sorted to by Saladin, for the purpose of delaying the renewal of open war- 
fare. It of course ended fruitlessly, and the Christians set out for Jerusalem. 
As they approached that city, the Templars and Hospitallers dissuaded Richard 
from attacking it, for the reason that if it should be captured, they would 
be at once involved in wars with the Turks; while, the Sepulchre being 
recovered, the vows of most of the pilgrims would be accomplished, and they 
would return home, leaving the Holy Land to its fate. To Ascalon, there- 
fore, Richard retreated, and the whole army set about rebuilding its walls. 
The nobles, and the most distinguished clergy, laboured with the meanest 
soldier, and the work advanced with great rapidity. At the siege of Acre, 
the Duke of Austria took one of the enemy's towers, and planted his banners on 
it. Richard, incensed at what he considered the arrogance of an inferior, threw 
them into the ditch. This insult was probably remembered by the duke when 
the walls of Ascalon were to be rebuilt ; and he haughtily refused to assist in 
the work, saying that he was neither a carpenter nor a mason. This speech 
so inflamed the anger of Richard, that he smote the duke with his foot upon 
the breast, and ordered hira to depart instantly with his vassals from the 
Christian camp, threatening to break his standard, and throw it into the 

^Michaud — Histoire des Croisades. 



SIEGE OF JAFFA. 267 

river ; and while the duke retired muttering projects of vengeance, Richard 
followed him with imprecations. 

A civil war had broken out in Acre, between the Genoese and Pisans; 
and Conrad came from Tyre to bear a part in it. When Richard advanced to 
the city, Conrad retraced his steps, and the English monarch restored peace. 
Conrad soon after allied himself with Saladin, that he might maintain his inde- 
pendence ; and Richard again prepared for war. Meanwhile affairs in England 
demanded his presence, and he began to think of returning. A commander 
was to be selected to succeed him, as the head of the Christians ; and as the 
public voice named Conrad, Richard gave his assent. But that gallant prince 
was assassinated whilst preparations were making for his coronation. In the 
midst of the tumult which resulted from this act, appeared Henry of Cham- 
pagne, the favourite of the people. He was invited to seat himself upon the 
vacant throne, and with it he accepted the hand of the widow of Conrad. 
Henry soon afterwards joined Richard ; and the Duke of Burgundy, who had 
left the army at Ascalon, came with him. Richard now determined to con- 
tinue the prosecution of the war, and again the array marched towards Jeru- 
salem, harassed at every step by the flying parties of the Saracens. But again 
a council of the Templars and Hospitallers decided that a siege of the Holy 
City was inexpedient, and that the army should march to some other con- 
quest. Rancour and discord reigned throughout the camp, when this decision 
was published ; and the whole army would have been destroyed by the enemy, 
had not a retreat been commenced. Meanwhile, Saladin had learned the cause 
of the delay, and harl, by forced marches, reached and laid siege to Jaffa. The 
city was quickly reduced to such distress, that the knights bound themselves 
to surrender if aid from without did not reach them during the next day. 
Before morning, Richard arrived at the city, with about five hundred follow- 
ers, with whom he had come to the rescue by sea. He was the first to leap 
on shore, and so vigorous were the blows he dealt, that the Saracens fled in 
dismay, and he planted his banner on the walls. On the next night Saladin 
attempted to recover his advantages ; but the gallant band were proof against 
all his attempts, and the arm of Richard caused confusion to fall upon his 
enemies. A truce was then agreed on for three years and eight months ; the 
fort at Ascalon was to be destroyed, while Acre and Jaffa were to remain in 
the hands of the Christians. The people of the West were to be allowed to 
make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, without being subject to taxation. 

The illustrious Saladin died at Damascus, soon after concluding the truce 
with Richard. He was a prince of great generosity and valour. An act 
which he performed on his death-bed, is worthy of notice. A public crier was 
sent through the town of Damascus, followed by a person bearing a winding- 
sheet aloft as a standard, and continually proclaiming, " This is all that re- 
mains to the mighty Saladin, the conqueror of the East." In his will he 
ordered charities to be distributed to the poor, without distinction of Jew, 



268 



THE CRUSADES. 



Christian, or Mohammedan, intending by this legacy to inculcate that all men 
are brethren ; and that when we would assist them, we ought not to inquire 
what they believe, but what they feel ; an admirable lesson to Christians, though 
given by an infidel. In that age, all the advantages of science, moderation 
and humanity, were on the side of the Saracens. 




KICHASD CCrP. DE LION IN DISGUISE. 



After the truce, Richard determined to return to England, to put an end 
to the intrigues of his brother John and the King of France; but as he did 
not wish to pass through the territories of the latter, he sailed to the Adriatic. 
Being shipwrecked near Aquileia, he put on the habit of a pilgrim, Hugh the 
Merchant, and attempted to pass secretly through Germany. But he forgot 



CAPTIVITY OF RICHARD. 269 

to lay aside his kingly liberality, and was thereby betrayed. He became a 
prisoner in the hands of the Duke of Austria ; but Henry VI. thought it 
wrong that a king should be prisoner to a duke, and therefore Leopold deli- 
vered him to the emperor at Mentz, on the 23d of March, A. D. 1193. He 
w^as conveyed thence to Trifels, and afterwards to Worms. Meanwhile the 
English were much troubled about his fate. But Henry had written an ac- 
count of what had passed to the King of France, who in turn communicated 
it to the Archbishop of Rouen. Two abbots were sent from Oxford to Ger- 
many, to ascertain his situation. These met him on the way to Mentz ; he 
was cheerful as usual, amusing himself by practical jokes upon his keepers, 
and astonishing them by exhibitions of his great strength. He complained of 
his brother John ; but said that the treatment he had received from Leopold 
had not been harsh or unreasonably severe. 

Philip rejoiced at the captivity of his rival, and made war upon his ter- 
ritories in Normandy, where the Earl of Leicester bravely defended his sove- 
reign's possessions. Though Prince John attempted to seat himself on his 
brother's throne, the lords and the people sympathized with Richard. Queen 
Eleanor interested Pope Celestine in the cause of her son, and he threatened 
excommunication to Henry and Philip, if the one did not release his prisoner, 
and the other cease from his barbarous wars. But the emperor arraigned 
Richard before a diet at Worms, for supporting a usurper in Sicily, quarrelling 
with Philip of France, insulting Leopold of Austria, and murdering the Marquis 
of Tyre, who was a relative of the emperor. But the captive king pleaded 
his cause so well, as to leave no doubt of his innocence upon the minds of 
those who heard him. The emperor, nevertheless, still held him a prisoner. 
He was finally ransomed, by the payment of one hundred thousand marks of 
silver, raised by taxation in England ; and hostages were left for the payment 
of forty thousand in addition. 

Scarcely had the tumult of the third crusade subsided, when the terrors 
of famine and war menaced the unfortunate Christians in Palestine. The pope 
solicited the emperor to engage in a new crusade, for the relief of the Holy 
Land ; and a diet was accordingly convoked at Worms, where the emperor 
avowed his determination of taking the cross, and induced the whole assembly 
to follow his example. He divided the troops into three great armies, one of 
which, under the command of the Bishop of Mentz, took the route for Hun- 
gary, where it was joined by Margaret, queen of that country, who had re- 
solved to end her days in Palestine. The second army was assembled in 
Lower Saxony, to go thence by sea ; while the third was led by the emperor 
himself into Italy, in order to take vengeance on the Normans of Naples and 
Sicily, who had risen against his government. The rebels were humbled, and 
their chiefs put to death with such excruciating tortures, that the empress, by 
w^hose right he ruled over them, renounced her conjugal faith, and headed the 
people in a war for the recovery of their liberties. Henry had sent the army 
on its way to the Holy Land, and the empress obliged him to submit to such 



270 THE CRUSADES. 

terras as she chose to impose on him in favour of the Sicilians. He died, not 
long after, in Messina, as was supposed of poison administered by the empress, 
who saw the ruin of her country hatching in his perfidious and vindictive heart. 

The Third Crusade was the last in which armies contended for the pos- 
session of the Holy Land upon its own soil ; and before proceeding to mention 
those which were productive only of suffering and barren glory, it may be 
well to take a glance at the progress of affairs in Europe during the period of 
the War of the Investitures and the first crusades. 

With the change of dynasty effected by Hugh Capet, France had become, 
like Germany, a government entirely feudal. Hereditary counts and dukes were 
found in every province, and the kingdom was a monstrous assemblage of 
members, without any compact body. He who coidd only seize on two or 
three small villages, paid homage to the usurper of a province; and he who 
had only a castle, held it of the possessor of a town. The royal domain of 
Louis V. had been reduced, at the time of his death, to the cities of Laon and 
Soissons; a sufficient reason for Capet, who possessed the Dukedom of France, 
the Countship of Paris, and extensive domains in Picardy and Champagne, for 
seizincr on a crown to which he gave more real strength than he received. 
During his life, and for the purpose of establishing his throne, he associated 
his son Robert in the government of the kingdom ; and at his death, which 
happened (A. D. 996) in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and eighth of his 
reio-n, Robert quietly succeeded to his power. Hugh Capet ruled with great 
prudence and moderation, and but few circumstances of bloodshed or violence at- 
tended his usurpation. Robert was equally amiable, but less vigorous. He 
had married Bertha, his cousin in the fourth degree, and several bishops sanc- 
tioned the union ; but Pope Clement V., without examining the cause, suddenly 
published a decree, ordering the king and queen to be separated under peril 
of excommunication. This monstrous outrage was resented by the king, who 
refused to part with his wife; but such was the superstition of the people, 
that Robert was abandoned by all his courtiers, and all his domestics save 
only two, who gave to the dogs all that remained from his table, and purified 
by fire the vessels in which they had been served. Fearful of civil commo- 
tions, Robert at length divorced his wife, and married the termagant Con- 
stance, daughter to the Count of Aries. 

In 1024, after the death of the German emperor, Henry IL, the ItaUans 
offered to him their crown, and the imperial dignity ; but he had sufficient 
firmness and wisdom to refuse acceptance of such a dangerous donation. His 
eldest son, Hugh, died before his father, and Queen Constance endeavoured to 
induce her youngest son, Robert, to make war on his brother Henry for the 
succession. But the fraternal love of the princes was so great, that her efforts 
failed, and she vented her anger against them both. Robert died in A. D. 
1031, lamented by all classes of the people.* 

*Helgaldus. Russel. 



EMBARKATION OF WILLIAM. 271 

Prudence and sagacity mark the character of Henry I., who succeeded his 
father at the age of twenty-seven. Constance, however, had not lost her en- 
mity towards him ; and she speedily organized a rebellion, by which Henry was 
driven to seek protection of Robert of Normandy. By the aid of the Nor- 
mans, he recovered his throne ; and in gratitude for the services he had re- 
ceived, he bestowed on them a considerable part of the possessions of the 
crown. Robert of Normandy soon after made a pilgrimage to Palestine, leav- 
ing Henry of France and Alain, Duke of Brittany, as guardians of his son 
and successor. Robert died during his pilgrimage, and the Norman barons 
spread war over the whole duchy. Alain came to quiet the disturbances ; but 
being roughly handled, he returned home, and not long after died of a slow poi- 
son, supposed to have been given him in Normandy. Henry soon afterwards 
invaded Normandy, joined his forces with those of the young duke, defeated 
the rebels, and secured the succession to William, A. D. 1046. Four years 
after, Henry died, and was succeeded by his son Philip, who, being only eight 
years old, was confided by Henry to the care of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, 
his uncle. This regency proved to be one of the most quiet and happy re- 
corded in history ; and Philip, by the death of Baldwin, in 1069, came into 
peaceable and firm possession of the throne, at the age of fifteen. 

Censure has however been applied to the conduct of Baldwin, in relation 
to William of Normandy. The supplies with which that prince accomplished 
his design of conquering England could certainly have been obstructed by the 
continental rulers ; but the papal influence was exerted in favour of the aspiring 
prince, and the emperor, Henry II., promised to protect Normandy in his ab- 
sence, and gave his vassals leave to embark in the enterprise. Baldwin had 
therefore sfood reasons for allowinor WiUiam to make levies in France and 
Flanders; and even had these been wanting, he could not with a good grace 
have refused the request of the duke, who was his son-in-law. The army 
which had been assembled might have been led against France in the event 
of a refusal, and the sixty thousand warriors who embarked for fame and 
glory in England, might have placed their leader on the throne of France. 

The education of Philip had been well conducted ; but he had acquired a 
sordid disposition, which led him on all occasions to prefer his advantage to 
his honour. The chief event of his reign is his marriage to Bertrand de Mont- 
ford, Duchess of Anjou, whilst her husband and his queen were both alive. 
For this, Pope Urban II. excommunicated him, in the same council of Cler- 
mont at which the first crusade was preached. Notwithstanding this, he lived 
with the countess until, after the deaths of Urban II. and the Queen of France, 
he was restored to the bosom of the church. But the nobles had taken ad- 
vantage of his domestic troubles to cast off much of his authority ; and he 
found it necessary to associate his son Louis VI. with him in the government. 
Louis was remarkable for activity, a quality which Philip did not possess ; he 
kept continually in the field, at the head of an army, compelled the noble 



272 



THE CRUSADES. 




'ILLIAM THE CON 



freebooters to make restitution to the church and to others whom they had 
wronged, and punished their violations of the laws by demolishing their castles. 
The appearance of disinterestedness with which he executed this summary jus- 
tice was such, that when in his thirtieth year he succeeded his ftither on the 
throne, he brought to the support of the monarchy the affections of the no- 
bility, and the reverence and good wishes of the people. He engaged in a 
war with Henry I. of England, which terminated without altering the state of 
either kingdom. Louis, who, from his corpulency in his latter years, was sur- 
named the Gross, devoted himself to the regulation of the internal affairs of 
his kingdom. He married his son, afterwards Louis VIL, to the heiress of 
Guienne and Poitou ; and at his death, in the sixtieth year of his age, left 
him the crown. 

The commencement of the twelfth century saw the consummation of an 
important revolution in France, the Enfranchisement of the Communes. This 
has usually been attributed by historians as a merit to Louis le Gros ; but an 
impartial examination of the facts seems to show that non-resistance, and the 
simple work of mediation, are all that form the share which that monarch 
took in the enfranchisement of the communes. He was certainly the first 
monarch who granted royal charters to the free cities ; and on this the French 
historians have claimed for him the honour of foundinff them. The industrious 
population of the Gallo-Roman cities could not be enslaved like that of the 
agricultural districts : it continued, under all oppressions, undivided and indus- 
trious. Fellow-sufferers and co-labourers soon associated themselves for com- 











pX^K 


M 








ENFRANCHISEMENT OF THE COMMUNES. 275 

mon defence ; they again fortified gradually, but securely, their half-ruined 
walls ; and then, when protected by a fortress, and holding arms in their hands, 
they declared to their noble oppressor that they were brothers, and their cities 
asylums of friendship, independence, and peace. The nobles resisted ; war ensued, 
and was terminated by the emancipation of the communes : sometimes by great 
success in the field, sometimes by payment of a sum of money. Thus was it 
in the south of France. The example was contagious: the new spirit spread 
north to the banks of the Somme and the Scheldt; the cities assumed the 
name of commonalties, they sent the archbishop and principal citizens to solicit 
the boon of a charter from the king : they were too powerful to be refused. 
Thus the communes Laon, Amiens, Noyon, and Saint Quentin, were enfran- 
chised by Louis le Gros : the cities of the south of France were already free. 
William II., surnamed Rufus or Red, from the colour of his hair, succeeded 
the Conqueror on the throne of England, while his brother, Robert, took peacea- 
ble possession of Normandy. But many Norman barons possessed estates in 
both countries ; they wished that one ruler should hold sway over both Eng- 
land and Normandy ; and as Robert possessed equal claims with his brother 
to the kingdom, and the exclusive right to the duchy, they engaged in a con- 
spiracy to dethrone the king, and raise his brother to power. They put them- 
selves in a military posture, and William began to tremble for his crown. His 
father, like all the Normans, had been much attached to the manly amusement 
of hunting ; and for the gratification of this passion, he had tyrannically caused 
a new forest to be made near Winchester, covering the country for an extent 
of thirty miles, and caused the forcible expulsion of the inhabitants, and the 
demolition of houses, churches, and convents. By increasing the rigour of 
the game-laws, and refusing to make any compensation for the property he 
destroyed, William I. had added to the ill-will of his English subjects; and this 
feeling they transferred to his successor, when they experienced his violence, 
haughtiness, and tyranny. But he conciliated them by concessions and pro- 
mises, and gave them leave to hunt in the royal forests. When they had aided 
him to suppress the rebellion, they found their burdens made as heavy as be- 
fore ; indeed, they were augmented by his tyrannical temper. Robert's brother, 
Henry, had furnished him with a sum of money in exchange for a portion of 
his dominions, and the two princes now united to repel an invasion of William 
Rufus. But the clergy mediated between the parties, and Robert and William 
were reconciled ; but Henry became incensed, and began to ravage the country 
in the neighbourhood of his fortress, on St. Michael's Mount. His brothers 
besieged him there, and he was obliged to capitulate. He afterwards wandered 
about, deprived of dominions and attendants, and suffering from poverty. Ro- 
bert soon after mortgaged his possessions to William Rufus, for ten thousand 
marks, and set out for the Holy Land. The death of the English king oc- 
curred just as he was about receiving a similar accession in the provinces of 
Guienne and Poitiers. This event took place in the New Forest, where he 



276 



THE CRUSADES. 




DSATH OF VTILLIAM RUFUS. 



was engaged in hunting, with a French gentleman, Walter Tyrrel, remarkable 
for his address in archery. Tyrrel let fly a shaft at a stag, that he might 
show his dexterity ; but it glanced against a tree, struck the king to the heart, 
and instantly killed him. Tyrrel, without informing any one of the accident, 
put spurs to his horse, fled to the sea-side, embarked for France, and went on 
a pilgrimage to the Holy Land : a penance imposed in that age for all crimes, 
voluntary and involuntary. 

The throne of England would now have come by right to Robert of Nor- 
mandy ; but he did not return from the crusade until a month after his bro- 
ther's death ; and by that time Henry had placed the crown upon his own 
brows. In order to strengthen himself on the throne, and secure the love of 
the English, Henry married Matilda, niece of Edgar Atheling, the legitimate 
heir to the throne in the Saxon line, after the death of Harold. But Robert 
appeared and asserted his claims, and Henry was in danger of being driven 
from his elevation, if an accommodation had not been effected by the interpo- 
sition of Archbishop Anselm, A. D. 1101. Robert became the sport of for- 
tune, and lost his duchy, which was seized by Henry, in 1106; he was taken a 
prisoner to England, and there confined until his death, twenty-eight years 
afterwards. 

WilUam, the son of Robert, attempted to obtain Normandy for himself, 
and was supported by Louis VL of France ; but the diplomacy and the arms 
of the French king proved unsuccessful, and the vigour and dexterity of Henry 



DEATH OF FRINGE WILLIAM. 277 

secured his triumph. The marriage of the son of the Norman Conqueror 
with Matilda, the niece of Edgar Atheling, was a poUtic measure, which revived 
the old Saxon feeling in the conquered and oppressed, and made them think that 
days of equality were in store for them, even under the new race. Matilda 
the Good was worthy to be a descendant of Alfred. She probably would have 
been more happy in the cloister to which she had fled for safety during the 
terrors of the Norman licentiousness, than with her ambitious, daring, profli- 
gate, but accomplished husband. Her influence over him did something, no 
doubt, for ameliorating the condition of her native land. 'She was a civilizer: 
she built bridges ; she cultivated music. But the promise which Henry had 
made when he seized the crown, that the old Saxon laws should be restored, 
was wholly broken as soon as he had fairly grasped the sword of authority. 
The collection entitled " The Laws of King Henry I." is a " compilation of 
ancient Saxon laws by some private person, and not a publication by authority 
of the state." The writer of this adds, " The general clamour in England 
for the Saxon laws of the Confessor, under the three Norman kings, makes it 
probable that this compilation was made by some private person at the time 
when the restoration of these laws was called for by, and repeatedly promised 
to, the nation." 

After an interview with Henry, the pope declared that of all men he 
had ever seen, the King of England was beyond comparison the most eloquent 
and persuasive ; and having gained the pope, Henry easily detached the Count 
of Anjou from the alliance, by giving the hand of his son William in marriage 
to the count's daughter. The pope disregarded the complaints of the Norman 
prince, and a victory gained by Henry caused Louis to end the war. In 1120, 
the English monarch brought his son William over to Normandy, that he 
might be acknowledged as heir to the crown. Returning to England, the 
royal party set sail from Barfleur ; the king's ship was soon out of sight ; 
out that in which the prince sailed was detained by an accident. The captain, 
Thomas Fitzstephen, and his crew, got intoxicated, while the damage was 
being repaired ; and when they put to sea, they ran the vessel on a rock, 
where she foundered. The prince had got into the boat, and was clear of 
the ship, and out of danger, when he heard his natural sister, the Countess 
of Perche, cry for aid. He made the seamen put back to save her ; but such 
numbers laid hold of the boat that it went down, and all on board perished. 
One hundred and forty young noblemen were with the prince ; and of all the 
passengers, a butcher of Rouen only escaped. He was saved by clinging to 
the mast. Fitzstephen also grasped it ; but having inquired for Prince 
William, he was informed that he had been drowned. " I will not survive 
him," said the unfortunate man ; and loosing his hold, he fell back into the 
sea and perished. 

When Henry was informed of the calamity, he fainted away, and v;as 



278 THE CRUSADES. 

never afterwards seen to smile. He, however, attempted to secure the suc- 
cession in his own line, by marrying his daughter, Matilda, to Geoffrey, son 
of the Earl of Anjou. Geoffrey was recognised as the heir of his father, Ma- 
tilda as the heiress of Henry. In 1132, Matilda gave birth to a son, who 
was named Henry, and invested with the rights of both his parents. An in- 
cursion of the Welsh having taken place in 1135, Henry prepared to return 
from Normandy to England ; but having surfeited himself with eating lam- 
preys, he died on the first of December, in that year. Henry I. was one of 
the most able and accomplished princes that ever filled the English throne. 
Of his family the Conqueror only equalled him in talent. To the other quali- 
fications considered necessary in his day for the government of a nation, he 
added a taste for literature which would have rendered him remarkable in a 
private station, and which has obtained for him the name by which he is 
known in history, Henry Beauclerc, or Fine-scholar. 

Henry had fondly imagined that he had secured the succession to his little 
grandson, who was now three years old ; but he had himself shown that another 
road lay open to the throne besides that of legitimacy. His nephew Stephen, a 
grandson of the Conqueror, resolved to avail himself of this path to power. 
He succeeded in seizing the royal treasures, and in violation of his solemn 
oaths, and of all the ties of gratitude, sought to deprive of their inheritance 
the daughter and grandson of that uncle who had given him all he possessed. 
In this emergency, Robert, the illegitimate brother of Matilda, proved himself 
worthy of confidence and esteem. He boldly espoused her cause, and entered 
into a contest with the usurper. Louis le Gros of France, espoused the cause 
of Stephen, while David, the King of Scotland, assisted his niece Matilda. 
" All was dissension, and evil, and rapine," says the chronicle of the reign of 
Stephen. Stephen defeated the Scotch in a battle at Northallerton, called the 
Battle of the Standard, because the English used as a rallying point, a large 
crucifix on a wain. (Aug. 22, 1138.) Robert, Earl of Gloucester, went to the 
continent in 1139, and returned with his sister to England. Her cause quickly 
found partisans ; and blood was shed in all parts of the country, until the 14th 
of February, 1141, when a decisive battle was fought at Lincoln. Stephen 
behaved with the greatest bravery ; on foot, alone, and surrounded by numbers, 
he defended himself with his battleaxe, and when that was broken, exchanged 
it for his sword. But his sword too was shivered to pieces, and he unAvillingly 
submitted. The nobles of his party gave up the contest, and Matilda might 
have enjoyed the throne in quiet, had it not been for her irritable temper and 
her unwarrantable pride. Hostilities w^ere again renewed, and Robert was taken 
prisoner ; and so helpless were the partisans of Matilda without him, that they 
gladly gave King Stephen in exchange for him. Henry, the son of Matilda, 
did not take an active part in the contest till 1152, when he had reached his 
eighteenth year. He then married Eleanor of Guienne and Poitou, the faithless 
divorced wife of Louis VII. of France. Henry's dominions on the continent 



HENRY PLANTAGENET. 



279 



now extended from the confines of Flanders to the Pyrenees ; while Louis, as 
superior lord, only owned one-tenth of France. Incensed at the conduct of 
Henry, Louis aided Stephen's son, Eustace, to overrun Normandy. But Henry 
speedily expelled him, and then crossed over to the aid of his partisans 
in England. He was now so powerful that Stephen agreed to an accommo- 
dation. His son Eustace, however, continued in arms ; but his opposition was 
soon after ended by his death. A council was held at Winchester in Novem- 
ber, 1153, where it was agreed that Stephen should reign for the rest of his 
hfe on condition of adopting Henry as his son and successor ; that Stephen's 
son, William, should inherit all that his father owned before his usurpation ; 
that the adherents on both sides should sustain no injury ; and that all grants 
of crown lands made by Stephen should be revoked, and all castles built by 
his permission demolished. These terms being confirmed by oath, Henry re- 
turned to Normandy. Stephen died on the 25th of October, in the next year, 
and the throne of England came quietly into the possession of the son of 
Matilda. Stephen was a prince possessed of many noble and estimable qua- 
lities ; and would have probably made an excellent king if he had acquired 
his crown in a legal manner.* 

Henry Plantagenet, the successor of Stephen, was received in England 
with universal acclamations ; all swore the oath of allegiance to him with joy ; 
and good order and justice, to which the kingdom had long been a stranger, 
were re-established. He visited his foreign dominions, and reduced them to 
order. He then returned to England, and forced the turbulent Welsh into 
submission. 

In the year 1137, Louis VII., surnamed Le 
Jeune, ascended the throne of France. After 
settling the disturbances which had arisen in his 
kingdom, he resolved to go on a crusade to Pa- 
lestine. For this purpose he confided the go- 
vernment of France to the Abbot Suger, and set 
out with Queen Eleanor on the second crusade. 
When he returned, he divorced the queen for her 
faithlessness, and returned her dowry of Guienne 
and Poitou. The importance of these, her heredi- 
tary estates, was so great, that Henry Plantagenet, 
more politic than delicate, sought and obtained 
the hand that Louis had abandoned. From the 
time of this marriage, Henry was extremely for- 
midable to Louis, who therefore espoused the 
cause of Stephen in the civil wars in England. 
A dispute about the county of Thoulouse brought 




QUEEN SLEA.NOB. 



* Keightley. 



280 



THE CRUSADES. 



on a war between the two monarchs in 1157. This war is chiefly remark- 
able from the circumstance of Henry's raising troops by subsidies instead of 
the usual feudal service. 

Henry was anxious to abridge the extraordinary privileges of the clergy ; 
and in his efforts for attaining this object, he relied upon the aid of Thomas 
ii Becket, who had been his favourite, and whom he promoted to the archbi- 
shopric of Canterbury. In this he was disappointed ; for Becket, when ele- 
vated to the primacy, openly opposed the king, and by the aid of the pope 
succeeded in defeating all his measures. 

Henry in a moment of passion said, in the hearing of some of his ba- 
rons, " To what a wretched state am I reduced, when I cannot do as I will 
in mine own kingdom, by reason of one priest ; and there is no one to de- 
liver me out of my troubles I" These passionate words were taken as a hint 
for vengeance, and four knights of the king's household communicated their 
thoughts to each other, and withdrew secretly from court, and proceeding to 




DEATH OF THOMAS A BECKET. 



Canterbury, assassinated the primate at the altar. Henry, learning that they 
had dropped some threatening expressions, had despatched a messenger after 
them, charging them to attempt nothing against the person of the primate. 
But he was too late. 

The consequence of this transaction was unconditional submission to the 
pope on the part of Henry, who dreaded an exconuuunication for a crime 
which he had not intentionally instigated. 



CONQUEST OF IRELAND. 281 

Finding that he was not to suffer from the thunders of the Vatican, 
Henry undertook and completed the conquest of Ireland; an enterprise for 
which he had formerly obtained a papal bull, but which he had not been able 
to prosecute, on account of his quarrel with Becket. The annexation of Ire- 
land to the English crown was easily effected; the small principalities into 
which it was divided being so weakened by long and destructive wars, that 
Henry had little to do but receive the homage of the inhabitants. On his 
return to England, he learned that two papal legates, sent to investigate the 
circumstances attending the murder of Becket, had arrived in Normandy. He 
went thither and cleared himself, by oath, of all participation in that unfortu- 
nate affair ; but as it was probably his intemperate expression which had pro- 
duced it, he bound himself to serve three years against the infidels, if the 
pope should require this atonement. 

The tranquillity of Henry appeared to be now re-established. It was, 
however, of short duration. Prince Henry, his son, had married the daughter 
of Louis VII., of France, and that monarch instigated him to take up arms 
against his father for the duchy of Normandy. His brothers also joined him 
in this unnatural league. Besides the King of France, William, King of 
Scotland, Philip of Flanders, and many other princes and barons on the con- 
tinent, and in England, espoused the quarrel of the princes. Unwilling to 
v;ar against his children, Henry had recourse to the pope, who excommunica- 
ted his enemies ; but they despised the ecclesiastical authority, and the un- 
happy father was forced to take up arms. Sensible of the effects of supersti- 
tion on the popular mind, Henry took advantage of it to secure the affection 
of the English. He went barefooted to the tomb of Becket; prostrated him- 
self before the shrine of the saint; remained in fasting and prayer during a 
whole day ; watched all night over the holy relics ; put scourges into the hands 
of the monks, and presented his bare shoulders to their castigation. 

Next morning he received absolution ; and a great victory that day ob- 
tained over the Scots by his generals, was heralded as a proof of his recon- 
ciliation with Heaven, and with Thomas a Becket.* In this battle, which was 
fought near Alnwick, the King of Scotland was made prisoner. It was deemed 
impious longer to resist a prince who was thus shown to be a favourite of 
Heaven, and hostilities were soon terminated by a peace. 

In 1179, Louis of France came over to England, and performed a pil- 
grimage to the shrine of Becket, that he might obtain his intercession for the 
recovery of his son and heir, Philip, from a severe illness. Soon after his 
return, he was struck with an apoplexy, which deprived him of his reason, 
and afterwards caused his death. (A. D. 1180.) Philip Augustus, though but 
fifteen at the time of his fiUher's misfortune, took the government on himself, 
and received the crown when his father died. The sovereign of England, 

* Russel. 
Vol. II. 3G 



282 THE CRUSADES. 

rising above the jealousy and ambition common to the princes of his age, gener- 
ously employed himself in composing the troubles which arose in the royal 
family of France. Philip, however, ungratefully encouraged Henry's sons in 
their opposition to him, until both the sovereigns became imbued with the cru- 
sading spirit, and assumed the cross. Before they could join in this enterprise, 
much trouble was excited by the joint intrigues of Philip and Prince Richard, 
who had seduced the chief barons of Poitou, Guienne, Anjou, and Normandy, 
from their allesiance to his father. 

Henry was so unsuccessful in this war, that he granted to his rebellious 
son the most advantageous terms. Among the conditions of the treaty was 
one by which the king engaged to pardon all the associates of Richard. 
When he received the list of their names, he found upon it that of his fa- 
vourite son, John, whose influence with the king had often excited the 
jealousy of his brothers. Shocked at finding the confidence he had shared 
with his child so shamefully betrayed, the unhappy father gave himself up to 
despair. He vented maledictions, which he never retracted, on his ungrateful 
sons. The excitement thus produced threw him into a fever, which terminated 
his life, at the castle of Chinon in Normandy, in the fifty-eighth year of his 
age. Two of his sons had died during his life-time ; the other two occupied 
in succession his throne. 

The first efforts of Richard on taking possession of the throne which he 
had so long coveted, were directed towards the Holy Land. He joined the 
king and the forces of France at Vezelay, on the borders of Burgundy, 
where the two monarchs promised mutual friendship, and pledged themselves 
and their barons not to invade each other's dominions during the crusade. 
Equally haughty, ambitious, and inflexible, it was not to be expected that 
two such leaders as Philip and Richard, rivals for power and for glory, would 
be able to remain in the bonds of friendship. As we have seen, Philip be- 
came jealous of his rival, and returned without accomplishing the object of 
the expedition. On his return, he employed every means of force and in- 
trigue against the absent King of England. When, at the crisis of his aff*airs, 
Richard fell into the hands of his enemies in Germany, Philip endeavoured 
to prolong his captivity ; and even made the emperor the largest offers for the 
transfer of his person from the possession of the Austrian house to that of 
the Capetians. He formed an alliance, by marriage, with Denmark, that the 
claims of Denmark to the English crown might be transferred to him ; con- 
cluded a treaty with Richard's brother, John, and invaded Normandy while 
John attempted to make himself master of England. Richard finally bought 
his liberty of the emperor for one hundred and fifty thousand marks of silver, 
and appeared again in England, to the great joy of all his people. The 
ceremony of his coronation was again performed ; the fortresses in the hands 
of his brother's adherents were quickly reduced, and Richard passed over into 
Normandy, burning to be revenged on Philip. But no events worthy of note 



THE ALBIGENSES. 283 

took place during this war, except the revolt of John from Philip to his 
brother, who generously forgave him his offences. He was also about to con- 
clude a peace with France, when he met with his death while besieging the 
castle of Chalus. 

The military talents of Richard formed the most shining part of his char- 
acter ; and the appellation of Cceur-de-Lion, the Lion-Heart, under which his 
fame has penetrated into every part of the globe, was awarded to him for the 
height to which he carried personal courage and intrepidity. His love for 
military distinction caused him utterly to neglect the welfare of his kingdom; 
and his violence and cruelty have scarcely any parallel, even in the worst ages 
of feudalism. 

As he left no issue, the throne came into the possession of his wicked 
brother, John. On his accession, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, the son of Richard's 
deceased elder brother, Geoffrey, attempted to gain possession of his uncle's 
crown. He was aided by Philip of France ; and all things promised success, 
when he was unfortunately taken prisoner by John. His assassination, which 
soon followed, was believed by his countrymen, the Bretons, to have been 
effected by the king's own hand. They rebelled, and were joined by Philip, 
who subsequently added Brittany to his own dominions, together with Anjou, 
Maine, Touraine, and part of Picardy. (A. D. 1205.) 

These misfortunes of John were followed by a quarrel with the pope, on 
the subject of investitures in his own kingdom ; and England was laid under 
an interdict. 

While England was thus suffering from the impolicy and misconduct of 
her sovereign, Innocent III. brought about a new and extraordinary war on the 
continent. He published a crusade against the Albigenses, a species of secta- 
ries in the south of France, whom he denominated heretics, because of their 
opposition to the power and influence of the clergy. The superstition which 
had led the chivalry of Europe against the infidels in Asia, and the reigning 
passion for military glory, now brought great numbers to the standard of the 
leader of this new crusade, Simon de Montfort. The Count of Toulouse, who 
protected the unhappy Albigenses, was robbed of all his possessions; and as 
though the sufferers had been the worst of malefactors, the knights of the cross 
laboured to exterminate them with incredible atrocity and barbarism, A. D. 1209. 

Having triumphed over these innocent opponents, the pope again renewed 
his operations against the impious king of England. A sentence of excommu- 
nication was pronounced against him, his subjects were absolved from their 
oath of allegiance, and Philip II. was appointed to cause his deposition. Anx- 
ious faithfully to perform so agreeable an office, Philip immediately commenced 
preparing an armament for the conquest of England ; and John made every 
exertion for the preservation of his dominions. But a papal legate passed 
through France into England, and nejjotiated with John for a cessation of hostili- 
ties, on the condition of being absolved and received again into the bosom of 



284 



THE CRUSADES. 




XING JOHN ABSOLVED BY THE POPE S LEGATE 

the church. John consented to do homage to the pope in the person of his 
legate, Pandolfo, and thenceforth to hold his kingdom as a vassal to the Holy 
See. The legate then returned to France, and at Boulogne met Philip, anx- 
iously awaiting his return, that he might proceed to England. His astonish- 
ment and chagrin at learning that, as England had become a fief of the Holy 
See, and its king the pope's vassal, he must not attack it, can scarcely be 
expressed. He intended, nevertheless, to have prosecuted the enterprise ; but 
the fleet of France vms destroyed by that of England ; the emperor, Otho 
IV., entered into an alliance with John against France; and Philip found him- 
self in danger of losing all his possessions in consequence of having accepted 
England as a present from Innocent. 

Undismayed, however, he advanced to meet his enemies with an army 
of fifty thousand chosen men, commanded by the chief nobility of France, 



THE GREAT CHARTER. 



2^5 




BATTLE OF TiOnVINMS 



and including twelve hundred knights. Otho was aided by the natural brother 
of King John, William Longespee, the Earl of Salisbury ; the Count of Flan- 
ders ; the Duke of Brabant ; seven German princes, and a force superior to 
that of his adversary. Near the village of Bouvines, between Lisle and 
Tournay, the contest was decided. The allies were totally routed ; the dead 
bodies of thirty thousand Germans covered the plain. Thus was the glory 
of Philip permanently established, and security given to all his dominions. 
(A. D. 1213.) 

A truce was soon after concluded between France and England ; but the 
peaceable possession of his throne was not to be the portion of John ; his 
weakness was well known, and the Norman barons determined to embrace the 
opportunity of recovering the natural and constitutional rights which had been 
stripped from them by the successors of the Conqueror. They entered into a 
confederacy, and formally demanded a restoration of their privileges ; and that 
their cause might wear the greater appearance of justice, they also included 
those of the clergy and people. With arms in their hands, they laid waste 
the royal domains, and John was obliged to humble himself. He appointed a 
conference with them at Runnymead, not far from Windsor ; and there, on the 
19th of June, 1215, he signed and sealed the Great Charter. This deed 
granted very important liberties to every order of men in the kingdom, and 



286 



THE CRUSADES. 




■WILLLIAM LONRESPEE 
EARL OP SALISBURY. 



is justly regarded by the English as the foundation 
of their free institutions. 

While thus tracing the progress of England and 
France, we have suffered the affairs of Germany and 
the rest of Europe to lie unnoticed. The emperor 
Henry V. was succeeded by Lothario, Duke of 
Saxe-Supplemburg, A. D. 1125. The principal ac- 
tions of Lothario were his establishment of Pope 
Innocent XL over his rival Anacletus, and the tem- 
porary expulsion of the Normans of Apuha, A. D. 
1139. On his way back to Germany, he was taken 
sick and died at Trent, in the twelfth year of his 
reign. Conrad, Duke of Franconia, succeeded him; 
but Henry, the haughty Duke of Bavaria, contested 
his right to the throne. The family name of Henry 
was Guelf, whence his partisans obtained the name 
of Guelfs. Henry was stripped of his dominions ; 
and after his death, the contest was continued by his 
brother Guelf and Roger of Sicily. Frederick of 
Suabia commanded the armies of his brother, the 
emperor ; and he gave to his soldiers the name of Ghibellines, from the name 
of his birth-place. The terms of Guelf and Ghibelline were afterwards differ- 
ently applied : the former was used to designate an adherent of the pope, 
while a partisan of the emperor bore the title of Ghibelline. 

While the war in Germany was brought to an accommodation, disorders 
broke out in Italy, during the continuance of which Pope Lucius II. lost his 
life. The emperor dying in 1152, his nephew Frederic Barbarossa (Red Beard), 
was elected emperor, in the hope that he might reconcile the internal dissen- 
sions of the empire, as he was by the paternal side a Ghibelline, and a Guelf 
by the maternal. This he effected by giving Bavaria, the ancient inheritance 
of the Guelfs, to Henry the Lion, of Saxony, the head of that party. He after- 
wards turned his attention to the affairs of Italy, and in 1154 he held a great 
diet on the banks of the Po, where many complaints were made against Milan. 
This city, which had grown so great as to rival Rome itself, proudly refused 
to answer them, and the emperor therefore inflicted a punishment upon it. 
He left Italy with threats of future vengeance, but the Milanese, unawed by 
his power, continued their independent policy. By reducing Lodi to ashes, 
they incurred the wrath of Frederic, who marched against the city, compelled 
it to surrender, destroyed its fortifications, and spread waste and desolation 
over the homes of the unfortunate people, who were all exiled. Frederic 
then went to Rome and took part in the civil war, in the course of which 
his soldiers burnt St. Peter's Church. A plague followed, which destroyed his 
army, and compelled him to return hastily to Germany. 



AFFAIRS OF GERMANY. 287 

But the very cities who had complained of the Milanese in the diet, were 
moved to compassion by the severe punishment inflicted upon that people. 
They conducted them back to their homes and entered into a confederacy 
with them; and, like Athens, Milan became more powerful than ever, because 
of her destruction. The confederation then, in one year, built and garrisoned 
a new city, which they named Alexandria, in defiance of the emperor, and in 
honour of the pope. Frederic besieged it seven months without success, 
and then fought a pitched battle with the allies at Lignano, May 29, 1176. 
Owing to the unexpected defection of Henry the Lion, he was totally defeated 
and obliged to recognise the independence of the Lombard cities. In conse- 
quence, the Duke of Bavaria was tried for felony, deposed from all his digni- 
ties and fiefs, and declared an outlaw. The emperor, however, took compassion 
on him, pardoned his offences, and counselled him to retire to the court of 
his father-in-law, Henry 11. of England, that the rage of his enemies might be 
moderated by his absence. Meanwhile, Brunswick and Luneberg, his hereditary 
possessions, were reserved to him. Thus the duke came to dwell as an exile 
in the country where his descendants were subsequently to ascend a brilliant 
throne ; for there his consort Matilda gave birth to William, founder of the 
chief branch of the house of Hanover, which has given a race of monarchs 
to Great Britain.* 

The emperor afterwards marched into Italy, where he was received as if 
no cause of enmity had ever existed. He gave to his son Henry the iron crown 
of Lombardy, and at the request of the Milanese, celebrated in their city the 
marriage of that prince with Constanza, the last heiress of the royal Norman 
race of Naples and Sicily. In May, 1189, Frederic set out for the Holy 
Land, where he expected to unite his arms with those of Philip and Richard 
against the great Saladin. As we have seen, however, he ended his days in 
Cilicia, a glorious death in a sacred cause. He was succeeded by Henry VI., 
who has gained everlasting infamy by the shameful manner in which he treated 
Richard I. of England. He died suddenly in Sicily, at the age of thirty-three, 
when he was planning the conquest of the Greek empire, as a means of securing a 
successful issue to the Holy War. (A.D. 1197.) After his death, the factions 
of the Guelfs and the Ghibellines tore the empire with civil war for ten 
years, 

Philip of Suabia, and Otho, the son of Henry the Lion, were both chosen 
to the imperial throne, and both alternately ravaged the country. Philip was 
assassinated, and Otho bore sole sway. But he quarrelled with the pope, who 
set up another emperor, Frederic II., to whom he had been guardian since 
the death of his f\Uher, Henry VI. (A. D. 1215.) The battle of Bouvines 
decided Otho's ruin. Abandoned by all his followers, he lived as a private 
man, an emperor without a throne, imtil his death. (A. D. 1218.) 

* Russell. Kohlrausch. 



288 THE CRUSADES. 

These troubles in Europe, however, did not prevent the formation of another 
crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land. The adventurers in this expedition 
were chiefly French and Germans. The enterprising Venetians furnished them 
with ships, taking care to be well paid both with money and territory. To re- 
ward the Venetians, the crusaders reduced to its former allegiance the city of 
Zara, in Dalmatia, which had revolted from the government of the republic. 

We have seen the throne of the East filled successively by four princes of the 
house of the Comneni, Alexis I., John, Manuel, and Alexis II. The latter 
was dethroned by his uncle, Andronicus, who was deposed in turn by Isaac 
Angelus. (A.D. 1185.) Ten years afterwards, he too was expelled, with the 
loss of his eyes, by his brother, Alexis. Isaac had a son named Alexis, who 
besought the aid of the Latins for his father, engaging to supply them with 
provisions and money, and submit himself to papal jurisdiction. By them, Isaac 
was restored to the throne. He then ratified the treaty which his son had 
made with the strangers, and died. The young Alexis succeeded him, and fell 
a victim to the hatred of the Greeks, who were incensed at him for calling 
in the aid of the Latins. A relative, named Murtzufle, strangled him with his 
own hands, and usurped the throne. 

This gave the crusade'rs, who were headed by Baldwin of Flanders, a pre- 
text for interference. Constantinople was attacked on the 12th of April, 1204, 
and captured with little difficulty. The standards of the bishops of Soissons and 
Troyes were planted at the same instant on one of the towers. The blows of the 
battering-rams burst three of the gates of the city; the whole army of crusaders 
rushed in, and for several days the unfortunate citizens endured all the horrors of 
massacre and pillage. The very coffins of the emperors were stolen by the soldiers 
and valets in the army, who penetrated wherever silk shone, or gold glittered. 
The altar of the Virgin, a master-piece of art which decorated the church of St. 
Sophia, was pulled to pieces, and the veil of the sanctuary was torn to ribands. 
While some of the French danced with the ladies in the sanctuary, others 
engaged in gambling on the marble tablets which represented the apostles. 
The plate in the sacred edifice was used on the tables of the conquerors, and 
horses and mules fell dead, overcome with the weight of the spoils laid upon 
them. 

Baldwin of Flanders was elected emperor, and Murtzufle was condemned 
to be thrown headlong from the top of a lofty column. Thrace and 
Moesia w^ere all, however, that came into the possession of Baldwin; the 
Venetians receiving for their share Peloponnesus, Candia, and several cities 
on the coast of Phrygia, while the Marquis of Montferrat seized on Thessaly. 
The pope gained for a time the whole eastern church, an acquisition which 
was felt to be of more importance than the reconquest of Palestine,' very few 
knights indeed going into the Holy Land. Innocent III., in speaking of this 
conquest, says, " God, willing to console his church by the union of the Schis- 
matics, has made the empire to pass from the proud, superstitious, disobedient 
Greeks, to the humble, pious, Catholic, and submissive Latins." 



LATIN EMPIRE IN GREECE. 



289 




DESECRATION OF THE CHURCH AT TJIB CAPTURE OF CONSTAKTINOPLE. 



But the princes of the Comnenian race had not lost their courage with 
their empire. One of them, who bore the name of Alexis, erected on the 
coast of Colchis what he chose to call the empire of Trebizond ; and Theodore 
Lascaris retook Nice, and settled himself as an emperor in Bithynia. Other 
Greeks entered into an alliance with the Turks and the Bulgarians against 
Baldwin, who was taken prisoner by them near Adrianople. They cut off 
his arms and legs, and left him a prey to wild beasts. His brother and suc- 
cessor, Henry, was poisoned in 1216, and within half a century Constanti- 
nople was again in the possession of the Greeks. 

While these things passed in the east, Philip and Otho devastated the 
west. 

Vol. II. ;i7 



290 



THE CRUSADES. 




FREDERIC II. 



At his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
Frederic II. made a vow to go in person to 
the Holy Land, a vow which Pope Honorius 
III. repeatedly called upon him to perform. 
But the emperor excused himself under the 
plea of important affairs at home, and the 
crusaders were forced to take for their leader, 
John, King of Hungary. They found John 
of Brienne, who held the crown of Jeru- 
salem, at Ptolemais. Coradin, the nephew 
of the great Saladin, and the son of Sa- 
phadin. Sultan of Egypt and Babylon, com- 
manded the Saracen forces. The Christians 
advanced to give him battle, but he found 
their numerical superiority to be too great, 
and declined the contest. The Christian 
army then divided itself into four parts, for 
its better subsistence; and John of Hungary shortly after returned to his 
own dominions. Damietta in Egypt was invested, and taken after a siege 
of eighteen months. A papal legate, the Cardinal Albano, brought a rein- 
forcement of troops from the emperor, and the pope confirmed his claim to 
the command of the whole expedition. John of Brienne therefore resigned 
it, and the monkish general speedily lost all the advantages that had been 
gained by his able predecessor. He led his army to a position between two 
branches of the Nile, just at the season when that river overflows its banks. 
Meledin had succeeded to the power of his father, Saphadin, on the decease 
of that potentate, and his conduct on this occasion proves him to have been 
worthy of his family. While he burnt the ships of the Christians on one 
side, he opened the sluices of the Nile on the other; and the increasing 
waters of the river threatened the cardinal and his soldiers with the fate of 
Pharaoh and his host. They therefore hastily concluded a dishonourable 
peace, surrendered Damietta, and bound themselves not to serve against Me- 
ledin for eight years. 

In order to compel the Emperor Frederic to perform his vow. Pope Gre- 
gory IX. excommunicated hhn. He retahated by ravaging the papal terri- 
tories. But he at length resolved to perform the expedition, in order to re- 
move the cause of the trouble. He was now prohibited from embarking before 
he was absolved from the sentence of the church ; but he went in defiance 
of the papal interference. He neither desolated Asia nor destroyed the infi- 
dels ; but he concluded a peace with Meledin, who ceded to him Jerusalem 
and its territory as far as Jaffa ; Bethlehem, Nazareth, and all the country 
between Jerusalem and Ptolemais; Tyre, Sidon, and the neighbouring coun- 
tries. Frederic then granted the sultan a truce for ten years, and returned 
to Italy. (A. D. 1230.) 



FREDERIC II. IN ITALY. 



291 




SHIPS OF ■!' LlH T Li I R X E li li T U C E N U' U R T. 



During his absence a crusade had been preached against him ; and his 
own son, Henry, and his father-in-law, John of Brienne, took part with the 
pope and the Lombards against him. On his return, however, he re-es- 
tabhshed order; compelled the pope to release him from excommunication, 
and ordered a peace to be proclaimed by the preacher, John of Vicenza. 
(A. D. 1235.) But the peace was of short duration. The emperor reap- 
peared in Italy at the entreaty of Ezzelino de Romano, Podesta of Verona, 
and chief of the Ghibellines in Lombardy. This leader obtained possession of 
Padua; and Frederic, by a great victory over the Milanese at Corte JSTiova, 
in 1237, broke the power of the Lombards. Milan, Bologna, Piacenza, 
Brescia, and all the other cities surrendered. But the pope became again in- 
censed, and restored the hopes of the Guelfs by adding Venice and Genoa to 
their alliance. But when the emperor made his natural son, Enzio, King of 
Sardinia, in violation of the professed right of the Holy See to that island, 
and prepared to complete the subjugation of the Milanese, Gregory excom- 
municated him anew. (A. D. 1239.) Frederic then marched into Italy, cap- 
tured Ravenna, and made the pope tremble in his capital. Yet he forbore to 
proceed to extremities, and offered to submit to the decision of an assembly 
of the fathers of the church. When, however, he perceived that none but 
his avowed enemies were summoned to attend, he forbade them from going 
to Rome; and Enzio, finding them about to proceed thither, attacked and de- 
stroyed the Genoese fleet which carried them, and brought a hundred prelates 
prisoners to Naples. This blow caused the death of the haughty Gregory. 



292 THE CRUSADES. 

(A. D. 1241.) He was immediately succeeded by Celestine IV., whose short 
reign was followed by an interregnum, which terminated in the election of 
Innocent IV., who, as Cardinal Fiesco, had been a friend to the emperor, 
but became, henceforth, his most formidable enemy. He confirmed the ex- 
communication of Gregory, and then fled to Lyons, where he summoned the 
emperor to appear before him. Thaddeus of Suessa here defended the cause 
of his master with all the powers of truth and eloquence ; but the struggle 
was vain, the fate of the emperor had been fixed. The pope pronounced the 
most dreadful curse upon him ; the priests remained silent, extinguished their 
candles, and threw them on the ground. 

The German bishops then awarded the imperial crown to Henry Raspe, 
Landgrave of Thuringia, who was, therefore, styled in derision, the " king of 
the priests." After his death (A. D. 1247) they chose another emperor, Wil- 
liam of Holland. By these proceedings, both Germany and Italy were in- 
volved in confusion. In the language of an old historian, " after the Emperor 
Frederic was excommunicated, the robbers congratulated themselves, and re- 
joiced at the opportunities thus afforded them for pillage. The ploughshares 
were transformed into swords, and the pruning-hooks into lances. Every one 
supplied himself with steel and flint, in order to be able to produce fire, and 
spread incendiarism instantly." 

In Italy the war continued uninterruptedly. The good fortune of the em- 
peror at length deserted him. His gallant son, Enzio, was taken prisoner by 
the Bolognese, and sentenced to perpetual confinement. He languished in prison 
twenty-two years, and survived all the sons and grandsons of Frederic, all of 
whom met with violent deaths. The hfe of the emperor, however, had drawn 
nearly to a close. He did not long survive the loss of his chivalric and 
handsome son. He died in the arras of his other child, Manfred, in 1250, at 
the castle of Fiorentino, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He had worn the 
crown forty-one years, during one of the most remarkable periods of the 
Middle Ages, when, under such pontiffs as Gregory VII. and Innocent III., 
the papal power was in its zenith ; when, by the establishment of the orders 
of knighthood, of the mendicant orders, and of the inquisition, the formidable 
pillars of the ecclesiastical structure were erected ; when, by means of the cru- 
sades, the people of Europe were first brought into a closer connexion by a 
common feeling imbodied in the sign of the cross; when chivalry, ennobled 
by religion, obtained a higher character, and a consistent organization; when 
the class of free citizens was gradually rising from its long degradation, and 
when the cities strengthened themselves against external dangers by great con- 
federacies, and completed and confirmed their internal organization, by the es- 
tablishment of corporations; when the first universities aroused the spirit of 
inquiry and examination ; when the songs of the Provencals had found a home 
in Germany and Italy, and were sung by emperors and kings -.—these were 
the times in which Frederic Hohenstaufen the Great lived and acted. Since 



DEATH OF KING JOHN. 293 

Charlemagne and Alfred, no potentate had existed who loved and promoted 
civilization in its broadest sense, so much as Frederic II.* His virtues and 
talents were great, and continually serviceable to the cause of civilization. 
His faults were the result of bad education, and the corruption and violence 
of the age in which he lived. 

On the death of Frederic II., began the long German Interregnum, under 
which the clergy took arms against the laity, the weak were oppressed by 
the strong, and all laws, divine and human, disregarded. After the death of 
Frederic's son, Conrad, who had assumed the imperial dignity as successor to 
his father, and the decease of William of Holland, a variety of candidates 
appeared for the empire, and many were elected by different factions; but no 
emperor was properly acknowledged until 1273, when Rodolph of Hapsburg 
was unanimously raised to the vacant throne. Meanwhile, Denmark, Holland, 
and Hungary freed themselves from the allegiance they formerly paid to the 
empire, and several German cities erected a municipal form of government, 
which still continues. Lubec, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzic united for mu- 
tual defence against the encroachments of the great lords, by the famous asso- 
ciation known as the Hanseatic League. Eighty other towns, belonging to 
different states, afterwards joined to increase the wealth and power of this 
commercial republic.! 

The archbishops of Cologne, Mayence and Treves, the King of Bohe- 
mia, the Count Palatine, Duke of Bavaria, the Duke of Saxony, and the 
Margrave of Brandenburg, who had long enjoyed the right of Pretaxation or 
first Election, assumed, on the death of William of Holland, the exckisive 
privilege of electing the emperor. Hence we have the origin of the seven 
electors, whose power and sovereign attributes constituted from this time the 
Germanic Empire a federative body. 

England, meanwhile, had been the scene of much confusion. After being 
compelled to sign the Great Charter, John dismissed his forces, and promised 
that his government should conform to its provisions ; but his disregard of 
this promise speedily involved him in another war with the discontented barons, 
in which Louis the son of Philip Augustus participated, invaded England, 
and was about to take possession of the throne. While John w^as preparing 
to make a final struggle for the crown, death ended his eventful hfe in the 
forty-ninth year of his age, and eighteenth of his reign. Crimes the most 
odious, and vices of the worst kind, united to form the character of John. 
His tyranny was not only ruinous to his people, but destructive to himself. 

He was succeeded by his son Henry III., a child nine years old. The 
able and fiiithful Earl of Pembroke was chosen protector during the king's 
minority, and by a wdse and conciliatory conduct, succeeded in changing the 
feeling of resentment which the barons entertained towards the father, into 

* Encyclopedia Americana. Kolilrausch. f Russell. 



294 



THE CRUSADES. 




BATTLE OF T A I L L B B O tl R G . 



compassion for the helpless youth of the son. Throughout the kingdom 
loyalty revived ; the army of the French prince was defeated at Lincoln ; a 
fleet bringing reinforcements was compelled to return ; the barons hastened to 
make their peace with the protector, and Louis determined to abandon his 
designs. He accordingly concluded a treaty with Pembroke, by which he pro- 
mised to evacuate the kingdom, stipulating in return an indemnity to his ad- 
herents, a restitution of their honours and fortunes, and the free and equal 
enjoyment of those liberties which had been granted to the rest of the nation. 
(A.D. 1217.) 

The government of Henry HI., after the lamented death of the Earl of 
Pembroke, was weak and unfortunate. He married Eleanor, daughter of the 
Count of Provence ; a circumstance which induced the king to keep a great 
number of foreigners about his person, much to the dissatisfaction of the Eng- 
lish barons. At the invitation of his father-in-law, who promised to join him 
wuth all his forces, Henry, in 1242, declared war against France, and invaded 
Guienne. But the battle of Taillebourg secured victory to the French ; his 
allies deserted him, and he was obliged to return with disgrace to England, 
after having lost all his possessions in Poitou. (A. D. 1243.) 

Henry, like his father, was constantly engaged in disputes wnth the ba- 
rons, on the subject of extending their privileges at the expense of the royal 
prerogative. They exacted from him an oath to observe the provisions of 
Magna Charta ; and subsequently, with arms in their hands, under the lead- 



DEATH OF SIMON DE MONTFORT. 295 

ing of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, brother-in-law of the king, they 
compelled him to grant them a new constitution, known as the " Statutes of 
Oxford." (A. D. 1258.) By these, the Earl of Leicester was piaced at the head 
of a legislative body of nobles, to whom the supreme power was transferred, that 
they might reform the state ; but at the end of three years it was found that 
they had only cared for the aggrandizement of their own families. All orders 
of men murmured at this breach of trust; the pope absolved Henry and his 
subjects from the oath taken at Oxford, and he resumed the government. 
But Leicester would not resign the power he had enjoyed, and many of the 
chieftains concurred in his views. The civil war was renewed in all its 
horrors ; and in a battle fought near Lewes, in Sussex, the royal party was de- 
feated, and Henry and his son Edward were made prisoners. 

Leicester then began to act as sole lord of the kingdom, and treated the 
barons with greater insolence than they had suffered from Henry himself. In 
1265, he summoned a new parliament on a more democratical basis than any 
that had been assembled since the time of the Conqueror, and which presents 
the first rude outline of that now prominent feature in the British constitution, 
the House of Commons. Relying for support upon the lower classes, De 
Montfort ventured to tyrannize over the nobles, many of whom revolted, and 
joined the royalists. Their want of a leader was supplied by Prince Edward. 

The oppressions of the usurper produced a force which Leicester was un- 
able to resist. A battle was fought at Evesham, where the usurper was slain, 
and his forces totally routed. 

The victory thus gained was used with moderation ; no blood was shed 
on the scaffold, the mildness of Henry and the prudence of his son tempered 
the exercise of power, and order was happily restored to the state. Edward 
then undertook an expedition into the Holy Land (A. D. 1270), where he 
displayed his valour with such an effect, that the Saracens employed an as- 
sassin to murder him. Edward was wounded in the arm, but repaid the 
temerity of the ruffian with death. Meanwhile, Henry, sinking under the 
burdens of government, implored Edward to return. He obeyed, but before 
he reached England the king expired, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and 
the forty-sixth of his reign.* 

Soon after the return of Prince Louis of France from his invasion ot 
England, Philip Augustus died, leaving to his son a kingdom twice as 
extensive as that which he had inherited. Philip had refused to engage in 
the war against the Albigenses ; but Louis VIIL, surnamed the Lion, follow- 
ing the pernicious advice of his counsellors, not only attacked the heretics during 
the life of his father, but sought an opportunity immediately on his accession 
to the throne of continuing the war against them. He assembled an army of 
fifty thousand men, and with this force besieged Avignon. The citizens fought 

* Russell. 



296 



THE CRUSADES, 



fjMMk^^Jk,.., 










SIEGE OF AVIGNON. 



with the greatest obstinacy, and the besiegers lost above two thousand men. 
They were finally compelled to accept of a capitulation, the terms of which were 
uncommonly severe. Soon after this success, Louis died at Montpensier, on the 
12th of November, 1226, four years after his accession. 

He was succeeded by his son, Louis IX., whose piety procured for him 
the title of Saint. During the minority of his son, the will of Louis VIII. 
provided that the affairs of the kingdom should be administered by his queen, 
Blanche, as regent. The prudence and firmness of the queen-mother repressed 
the excesses of the nobles, considerably augmented the kingdom, and secured 
the undisputed possession of it to her son. Louis falling sick, was so alarmed, 
that he took the cross, and vowed to lead an army against the infidels should 
he recover. The remonstrances of the queen-mother and her counsellors were 
insufficient to divert him from the performance of what he considered a solemn 
obligation. The greater part of the princes of the blood, and of his vassals, 
accompanied him on the expedition, which set sail from Marseilles for Cyprus. 
After some stay at that place, he determined to attack Egypt. His prodigious 
army appeared before Damietta, early in June, 1249, and soon succeeded in 
capturing it. On entering the city, the crusaders had the good fortune to 
deliver fifty-three captives, who had refused to abjure their faith, and who had 



ST. LOUIS IN CAPTIVITY. 



297 




ST. LOUIS IN CAPTIVITY. 



groaned in irons for twenty-two years. This happy commencement was soon 
followed by a disastrous reverse. Vanquished in the battle of Massoura, after 
performing prodigies of valour, Louis found himself and his two brothers pri- 
soners in the hands of the enemy. This misfortune served to show forth the 
virtue of the Christian hero, and the character of the great king. He did not 
address a prayer to his enemy, and his pride did not abase itself to the language 
of fear or submission. Of all his riches, his book of psalms alone remained to 
him — useless spoils for the Mussulmans — and when all else was lost, this was 
his only consolation. It was proposed to him to purchase his liberty by the 
surrender of Damietta, and the payment of a million of bezants. To this Louis 
replied, " A king of France may not buy himself with gold ; we will give you 
Damietta for my deliverance, and the million of bezants for the freedom of 
my army." The sultan, pleased with his dignified bearing, abated one-fifth 
Vol. IL 38 



298 



THE CRUSADES. 




ST. LOUIS ENTERING PTOLEMAIS. 



of the price. The treaty was about to be concluded, when the sultan lost his 
life at the hands of his revolted emirs. Louis, thus exposed to new dangers, 
escaped them all by his admirable calmness and firm bearing ; and, at length, 
he was permitted to embark for Ptolemais, with his queen and the remnant of 
his army. He arrived there while the people and the clergy were yet praying 
for his deUverance.* Louis still, however, continued the appearance of a holy 
war, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Queen Blanche, who enjoined him 



* Michiiud 



DEATH OF ST. LOUIS. 301 

to return to his own troubled kingdom. Her death at length decided his 
return. (A. D. 1254.) 

In his own country he studied to render complete the happiness of his 
people, and to preserve peace with the neighbouring sovereigns. His justice 
became proverbial ; and his subjects, and strangers, gladly submitted their dis- 
putes to his decision. He never, however, abandoned the thought of a second 
crusade. The taking of Antioch by Bibars was a signal to him for its ac- 
complishment. The efforts of the warriors of the cross were now directed 
against the possessions of the infidels in Northern Africa. The interested 
suggestions of Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily, and the hope of converting 
the King of Tunis, caused Louis to turn his arms against that city. But 
" instead of a proselyte," says Taylor, " he found a tedious siege, and a 
mortal disease." The crusaders were scarcely under the walls of Tunis, when 
a pestilence commenced its ravages among them. The king's two sons died 
of it; and Louis, weakened by the fatigues and austerities of his life, could 
not escape its malignity. Finding himself attacked by the malady, Louis de- 
manded the extreme unction. He answered to the prayers for the dying with 
a voice as firm as if he were giving orders for the battle-field. He knelt at 
the foot of the bed to receive the holy Sacrament, and supplicated the Throne 
of Grace for the whole human family, not excepting the infidels, who were 
the cause of his glory and his misfortunes. On the 2oth of August, A. D. 1270, 
feeling that his end approached, Louis caused himself to be laid upon a bed of 
ashes, where he remained extended, his arms crossed on his breast, and his eyes 
raised towards heaven, until the moment of his dissolution. As the sun sunk 
in the west he heaved a deep sigh ; and as he pronounced distinctly the words, 
" Lord, I hasten into thy mansion, and I will adore thee in thy holy temple," 
his soul fled to the holy temple which he longed to inhabit. 

His mortal remains were deposited in two funeral urns. One of them 
was given to his brother Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily ; the other, in which 
were the bones and the heart of his father, was carried by Philip into France. 
Philip III., surnamed the Hardy, thus came to the throne, afar from his na- 
tive land and in the midst of sickness and death. Charles of Anjou had 
arrived in the camp of the crusaders on the evening of his brother's death, 
bringing abundance of provisions and reinforcements. AH hopes of successfully 
completing the enterprise were vain, and Charles took the command of the 
army only to negotiate. After two months, a treaty was concluded by which 
the King of Tunis engaged to release all his Christian prisoners, and pay the 
expenses of the war. After the crusaders had left the shores of the Moslem 
prince, they experienced still further disasters. A storm off Trapani wrecked 
eighteen of the largest vessels, and many more transports. Many knights and 
warriors, wath an immense store of military equipments, and all the booty ob- 
tained at Tunis, were lost. At Trapani, Philip lost his wife and a new-born 
child ; and the old troubadour, Thibaut of Champagne, King of Navarre, ex- 



302 THE CRUSADES. 

pired of exhaustion and chagrin, at the many miseries he had witnessed and 
sustained. The entry of Philip III. into his capital on the 22d of May, 1271, 
was with the most melancholy pomp with which sovereign was ever accom- 
panied when he went to take possession of a throne which had devolved on 
him without dispute. He was followed hy the coffins of his father, of his 
wife and child, of his brother John, and of the King of Navarre. Before the 
ceremony of his coronation was ended, his uncle and aunt, Alphonso of Poitou 
and his consort Jane, were added to the number of illustrious dead. By each of 
these deaths, however, the king personally was a gainer. The rich provinces 
of Auvergne, Poitou, Champagne, and Toulouse, fell at once, by right of 
inheritance, to the crown ; and for the first time the kingdom of France ex- 
tended from Calais to the Pyrenees, from Brest to the Rhone, and from Bay- 
onne to the Alps. 

The policy of Philip Augustus began then, in fact, to be developed by 
its fruits ; and the sceptre was seen to be something more than the mere 
staff of office borne by the president of a feudal confederacy. It was, per- 
haps, fortunate for royalty that at this period it was in close alliance with 
the populace — with the middle class then struggling into being ; it must, 
otherwise, have been compelled to fight its way through obstacles which, 
before the lapse of a century, would have given birth to pure democracy ; 
and thus have saved the world from the unnumbered throes and struggles 
which, from time to time, have since convulsed it, and the issue of which has 
yet to be decided by a revolution ; the character of which will be determined 
rather by the amount of intelligence which may direct, than by the degree of 
coercion employed in it. Had Philip possessed the talents of his father, his 
grandfather, or his great-grandfather, fie might have had the option of being 
the most despotic prince, or the most beneficent sovereign of his age ; but 
his genius resembled that of Charles of Anjou, and he chose rather to attempt 
the revival of the somewhat obsolete observances of knight-errantry, than to 
confine his attention to the concentration of his power, or the consolidation 
of his government. His intelligence was behind that of his day, and his reign 
consequently presented little that is of marked interest to mankind at large.* 

We now return to the affairs of Spain, which was still divided into many 
different sovereignties. Navarre, Castile, and Aragon would not unite against 
the Moors, whose strength was concentrated in Granada. Alphonso XI. was 
the only Castilian king who distinguished himself in war against the Moors. 
He raised the siege of Tariffa (A. D. 1340), and thus gained important 
advantages over them. Peter the Cruel, of Castile, was dethroned by his 
illegitimate brother, Henry of Trastamara ; but was subsequently restored by 
Edward the Black Prince. He was ungrateful to his benefactor ; and in a 
subsequent contest lost his kingdom and his life. Castile now passed to the 

* Pictorial France. 



ZINGIS KHAN 303 

house of Trastamare, and for a long period enjoyed peace and prosperity. 
The kingdom of Aragon, less extensive than Castile, by the advantages of 
a better government, greater industry, and a line of sea-coast for foreign com- 
merce, had acquired superior political importance. Aragon counted, among its 
foreign dependencies, Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, and the county of Barcelona, 
with several other Catalonian districts. These two kingdoms would probably 
have contested for the supremacy of Spain, had not the marriage of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella united them into one. (A. D. 1469.) Portugal was on the 
point of being united to Castile by the marriage of King Ferdinand's daughter, 
Beatrice, to the Castilian monarch, John I. But on the death of Ferdinand, 
the regency was usurped by his illegitimate brother, Don Juan, who, after a 
fierce war with the Castilians, succeeded in maintaining the independence of 
Portugal. 

In the preceding pages of this volume, we have seen a horde of emigrant 
warriors, led by Attila the Hun, from the mountainous regions between China, 
Siberia, and the Caspian, desolate the fertile plains of Europe, and complete 
the destruction of the Western Empire of Rome. In like manner, in the be- 
ginning of the thirteenth century, an energetic prince, issuing from the wilds 
of Tartary with his Mongolian followers, succeeded in estabhshing his authority 
over most of the wealthy and powerful kingdoms of Asia. This prince was 
Temugin, the son of a monarch whose sway extended over thirteen hordes, 
numbering some thirty thousand families. By skilful conduct, he succeeded in 
acquiring the esteem and confidence of the neighbouring tribes, whose submis- 
sion swelled his power and dominions. Bringing superstition to his aid, he 
received from a naked prophet, whose powers were not unequal to the task 
of ascending on a white horse to heaven, the divine right of conquering the 
earth. Then, in a general assembly, he was solemnly proclaimed Zingis Khan 
(supreme monarch) of the Mongols and Tatars, or Tartars.* As his power 
over the pastoral nations extended, he resolved to turn his strength against 
the wealthy nations of the South. The Great Wall opposed his passage : it 
was, however, overcome, and the warlike khan led his forces to the gates of 
Pekin. The city was taken after a long and laborious siege ; Tartar war, 
and internal faction, desolated all China, and the five northern provinces were 
added to the empire of Zingis. 

The Sultan of Kharasm or Carizme, by an unprovoked outrage, drew 
upon himself the hostilities of the Mongol conqueror. The literary eminence 
of Bokhara, the commercial prosperity of Samarcand, and the multitude and 
valour of the sultan's troops, all availed nothing against the torrent of war- 

* Mogul is the name of the first of these rival but kindred tribes, as written by Gibbon. 
Mongol, however, appears to be more correct. The Chinese call them Mongkou ; the Mond- 
choux, their neighbours, Monggo. The proper name of the latter tribe is Tatars : they were 
descendants of Tatar Khan, and once formed a horde of seventy thousand families, on the 
borders of Kitay. See Notes to Gibbon. 



304 THE CRUSADES. 

fare which poured over the land. In the first battle, one hundred and sixty 
thousand of the Carizmians were slain ; and in four years, ravages were com- 
mitted which the labour of five centuries has not been sufficient to repair. 
Not only Kharasm, but the greater part of Northern and Eastern Persia, As- 
trachan, and the territories to the confines of Russia, fell under the sway of 
Zingis Khan. He continued his career of conquest to the end of his life, 
which happened in the seventy-sixth year of his age. (A. D. 1227.) His 
successors followed in the path which he had marked out. China was com- 
pletely subdued, the dominion of the caliphs of Bagdad terminated, and the 
sultans of Iconium made tributary. The son and immediate successor of 
Zingis Khan, known to history as Octai Khan, sent two armies from the 
centre of China, one against the Corea, the other to the lands north-east of 
the Caspian. The Russian Empire was subdued, and the Mongols spread 
through Hungary, Poland, and Siberia, and to the coasts of the Adriatic. 
Kublai Khan was the grandson, and the last of the successors of Zingis 
Khan who is noted for his conquests ; the empire being ruined by partitions 
after his death. 

We have seen the death of a sultan of Egypt at the hands of his 
officers, at the time of the captivity of St. Louis. This occurrence marks 
the overthrow of the Ayubite dynasty, founded by Saladin's descendants in 
Syria, and in Egypt by the Mamelukes. These were Turkish captives, who 
had been sold into slavery by the Mongols. The Sultan Saleh had pur- 
chased a number of the younger captives, and had formed them into a camp 
on the sea-coast, where they received military instruction. Afterwards they 
were brought to guard the royal person, and the officers of state. But they 
rapidly grew numerous and powerful ; and as we have seen, Turan Shah, the 
son and successor of Saleh, was murdered for attempting to break their 
strength. (A. D. 1250.) Their dominion over Egypt lasted two centuries and 
a half. The office of sultan became subject to military election. The rulers, 
therefore, did not become so effeminate as in hereditary monarchies ; and under 
them the Mamelukes recaptured the kingdoms of Aleppo and Damascus, and 
united the whole of the ancient Saracenic possessions, in the Levantine coun- 
tries, into one empire. The principalities of Antioch and Tripoli were easily 
subdued ; and Acre and Tyre, the last memorials of the crusades, were taken, 
the first by assault, the latter by capitulation.* 

* Gibbon. Taylor. 




CHAPTER Vll 



e f I i n f of 1 1) c -p a r a 1 -^lii o Ski ? r . 




LREADY the papal power, which had reached 
its greatest height during the pontificates of Gre- 
gory X., Nicholas III., and Martin IV., had, on 
the death of the latter pontiff, begun sensibly to 
decline. For nearly ten years the succession of 
popes was so rapid as to deprive them, in a 
great measure, of their influence on the affairs 
of Europe. After the death of Nicholas IV., in 
1292, the papal chair remained vacant for up- 
wards of two years, until the election of Celestine V., who soon afterwards, 
influenced by the Cardinal Benedict Cajetan, decreed his own abdication ; and 
his counsellor having previously gained the suffrages of the college, assumed 
the triple crown, under the name of Boniface VIII. 

Boniface renewed all the old pretensions of the church ; but he had not 
the power necessary to enforce his decrees. He aspired to universal sove- 
reignty over ecclesiastics, princes, and nations ; and in consequence of his as- 
sumptions, Philip the Fair, who had succeeded in 1285 to the throne of 
France, rebelled, and was excommunicated. This act, once so formidable, was 
disregarded by the French nation ; and the quarrel continued until, finally, the 
pope bestowed the kingdom of France upon the Emperor of Germany. Bo- 
niface himself was, in the meantime, excommunicated by the bishops of Hun- 
gary, for endeavouring to impose upon them a king of his choice. 

In a reunion or assembly of the bishops and barons of France, Philip 

appealed to a future council against the anathema of the pope ; and William 

de Nogaret, his attorney-general, accusing the pontiff of heresy and simony, it 

was determined to imprison him. This magistrate, seconded by the Ghibelline 

Vol. II. 39 (sos) 



306 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

family of Colonna, whose estates the pope had confiscated, boldly arrested Bo- 
niface at his summer residence at Anagni. After maltreating him, they impri- 
soned him in one of the apartments of the palace ; but his adherents delivered 
him from their hands, and he retired to Rome, where he died, A. D. 1303. 

From the death of Boniface, the court of Rome will be found husbanding 
its strength, concentratmg its resources : no longer provoking the hostility of 
kings and emperors, but fighting only on the defensive. A few pontiffs may, 
perhaps, be found setting forth the claims of Gregory, Innocent, and Boni- 
face ; but their efforts appear puny and weak, and dying with themselves.* 

The life of Boniface's successor, Benedict XL, was too short to effect a 
reconciliation between the Holy See and the French crown. His successor, 
Clement V., was chosen by the influence of Philip of France ; and the papal 
court was removed from Rome to Avignon (A. D. 1309), where it continued 
under his six successors for nearly seventy years, known from this fact in the 
history of the church, as the Babylonish Captivity. 

Philip, having now come to an amicable understanding with the church, 
turned his attention to an object which has cast everlasting obloquy on his 
name. This was the suppression of the Knights Templars, an association 
founded (A. D. 1118) for the protection of pilgrims travelling towards the 
Holy Land. Afterwards, when Palestine was abandoned, and their services 
no longer required, they had altered the object of their institution to the sup- 
port of the popes of Rome. Their immense wealth had long excited the envy 
and cupidity of the King of France. Their destruction was determined ; and 
pretexts for dissolving the institution were easily found in their real and pre- 
tended corruptions and crimes. Having determined to suppress the order, 
Philip easily obtained the consent of his creature. Pope Clement V., to his 
design. On the 13th of October, 1307, James Molay, the grand-master of 
that order, wath about one hundred and forty of his subordinate knights, was 
arrested in the temple at Paris ; and on the same day similar seizures were 
made in every part of the kingdom. They were accused of idolatry, of blas- 
phemy, and of pollutions too horrible to be named. In the absence of suffi- 
cient testimony to convict them of these crimes, their persecutors had recourse 
to the rack ; and in their endeavours to torture their victims into confession, 
many murders were perpetrated. In Paris alone, thirty-six knights died upon 
the rack. This persecution continued for more than four years. At length, in 
March 1312, the council of Vienna decreed, and the pope confirmed the entire 
abolition of the order; Molay, the grand-master, and upwards of fifty others 
})erished at the stake in Paris ; in Senlis nine knights were burned on one 
funeral pile. The specified property of the Templars was conferred on their 
rivals, the Hospitallers ; while the residue, far greater in amount, fell to the 
prince or king in whose territory it was found. 

* Taylor. Proctor. 



WALLACE. 



307 




SURVIVORS OF TOE 



The heroism of the Templars in Pa- 
lestine, in the palmy days of the order, 
is well illustrated by their conduct at the 
battle of Nazareth. 

In 1187, when Jerusalem was threat- 
ened by Saladin, the Templars and Hos- 
pitallers took upon themselves its defence. 
They mustered but one hundred and thirty 
knights, and three or four hundred in- 
fantry, to oppose a Saracen army of 
seven thousand. The Christians, how- 
ever, did not hesitate to attack the enemy 
at Nazareth; and, overwhelmed by su- 
perior numbers, they all perished on the 
field of battle, except the grand-master of 
the temple and two of his knights, who 
were fortunate enough to escape the ge- 
neral carnage. 

England, in the meantime, had yielded as little respect to the papal 
mandates as France ; and Boniface's attempt to regulate the ecclesiastical re- 
venues of the kingdom was defeated by the firmness of Edward I. Edward 
had returned from the crusades with ideas of conquest tending rather to 
the advantage of his kingdom than to the deliverance of Jerusalem. The 
Welsh and Scotch had successfully defended their independence against the 
Saxon monarchs, but Edward determined to reduce them. With respect to 
Wales he was completely successful, and finally reduced that country to sub- 
jection. (A.D. 1283.) 

On a disputed succession to the crown of Scotland, Edward being chosen 
umpire, placed John Baliol, one of the twelve claimants, on the throne, with 
the condition of feudal dependence on the English sovereign. (A. D. 1292.) 
This was followed by rebellion and war. The King of England crossed the 
Tweed with thirty thousand foot and four thousand horse, and speedily reduced 
the Scots to submission, and made Baliol a prisoner. 

Edward was next engaged in a war with Philip the Fair of France 
(A. D. 1296), which was terminated in 1303 by the marriage of Philip's 
daughter, Isabella, to the heir of the English crown. 

Meantime, the Scots had again risen in arms, under the conduct of the 
celebrated William Wallace, to be again defeated. The victory at Falkirk 
rendered Edward once more master of Scotland, and the gallant Wallace was 
cruelly put to death. Robert Bruce, the grandson of one of the former com- 
petitors for the crown, was now recognised by the Scots as their king ; and 
war was declared anew. Edward was greatly exasperated, and prepared for a 
fresh invasion ; but his expedition was terminated by his death on the frontiers 



308 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

of Scotland, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and thirty-fifth of his reign. 
With his dying breath the king charged his son to prosecute vigorously the 
war with Scotland. (A. D. 1307.) 

Edward II., however, leaving the war to be conducted by the Earl of 
Richmond, returned to England, and gave himself up to the direction of his 
favourites. The first of these. Piers Gaveston, incurred the hatred of the 
nobles and the people, and Edward was compelled to renounce him. His subse- 
quent restoration to favour, in 1312, occasioned a new revolt, which terminated in 
the destruction of the favourite. Edward, reconciled with his barons, under- 
took the execution of his father's designs against Scotland, where Bruce had 
been successfully exerting his power. The victorious career of this great hero 
was crowned by the decisive battle fought in 1314, at Bannockburn. There 
the independence of Scotland was secured, and Bruce fixed on the throne by 
giving to the English the greatest overthrow that they had received since the 
Conquest. Further shame and misfortune awaited the English monarch. 
Hugh Despenser, or Spenser, a nobleman of high rank, had succeeded Gaves- 
ton in the affections of the king and the hatred of the barons. A revolt 
headed by the Earl of Lancaster was, however, suppressed; the earl was behead- 
ed ; and of his followers, fourteen bannerets and fourteen knights-bachelors were 
hanged, drawn and quartered, and one knight was beheaded. After this triumph 
young Spenser became haughty and arrogant, overbearing and cruel. This con- 
duct of the favourite and the ill success of the Scottish war, again alienated the 
minds of the people from their king. On the 30th of May, 1323, Edward 
concluded a treaty for a suspension of hostilities with Bruce for thirteen years, 
and thus in fact, though not in express terms, acknowledged the independence 
of Scotland. 

Spenser having presumed to control the revenue of the queen, she fled 
to the court of her brother, the King of France. From the Earl of Hai- 
nault she obtained two thousand men, with whom she sailed for England, with 
her son Edward, and landed in Suffolk, where she was soon joined by many 
of the nobles. Every one deserted the unhappy king, except Spenser and 
his father, the Chancellor Baldock, and a few of their retainers. Edward fled 
to Wales; but the people among whom he was born gave him up to his 
enemies, and he was confined a close prisoner in Kenilworth Castle. He was 
soon afterwards removed to Berkeley Castle, where he was murdered in a 
horrible manner. (A. D. 1327.) The fall of the king involved the destruction 
of his favourites. 

Edward III. succeeded his father on the throne of England ; but the ad- 
ministration of afl'airs was given to his mother, the Queen Isabella, during his 
minority. 

Louis X. le Hutin (the Quarrelsome), succeeded his father, Phihp the 
Fair, on the throne of France, A. D. 1314. He united the kingdom of Na- 
varre, which he had inherited from his mother, to the crown of France. In 



RODOLPH OF HAPSBURG. 309 

order to raise money for the necessary expenses of his coronation, Louis was 
obHged to make great concessions to the people of the disaffected provinces. 
He sold deeds and charters of emancipation to all who were willing to pay 
for them, liberated all the crown serfs, recalled the Jews, and redressed many 
of the alleged grievances of his father's reign. Louis died in 1316, after a 
reign of eighteen months. 

After some delay, Louis was succeeded by Philip V., the Tall. PhiHp 
induced his brother-in-law, Edward XL of England, to renew his homage for 
the counties of Guienne and Aquitaine; he pursued, with the greatest rigour, 
all Jews, heretics, lepers, and sorcerers. He also published an ordinance, re- 
markable for its sagacity, containing rules of justice, administration, and finance ; 
the most important of which declared the domain of the crown inalienable. 
Philip died on the 3d of January, 1322, leaving no son to succeed him on 
the throne. 

His brother, Charles IV., surnamed the Fair, succeeded 'to the crown 
without opposition. Charles immediately offered himself as a mediator be- 
tween the Count of Flanders and his subjects, who had imprisoned him in 
Bruges ; and he succeeded in procuring the liberation of the count, on his 
promising to respect the liberties of the towns and corporations. Charles soon 
after became involved in a war with the English. He captured Guienne and 
Aquitaine. Queen Isabella concluded a peace on the part of Edward II., by 
which the King of England resigned his right to the French provinces to his 
son, the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward III. The queen then, as we 
have already seen, turning against her husband, invaded England, deposed 
Edward, and, it is probable, was the cause of his death. Charles reigned six 
years and one month, and died at Vincennes on the 1st of Februar}-, 1328. 
On the death of Charles IV,, the first branch of the family of Capet became 
extinct ; and the magnificent inheritance acquired by the arms and the policy 
of the descendants of Hugh Capet, was transmitted to Philip of Valois.* 

The German empire requiring a chief whose firmness should rescue it 
from the anarchy into which it had fallen during the interregnum, but whose 
power might not be sufficient to alarm the suspicions of the electors, Rodolph 
of Hapsburg was selected as possessing those quafifications. Ottocar, the 
King of Bohemia, however, protested against his election, and refused to do 
him homage. He was therefore outlawed at the diet of Augsburg, and sum- 
moned to restore the Austrian provinces which he had unjustl)'' acquired on 
the extinction of the house of Bamberg. In order to carry this sentence into 
execution, Rodolph formed an alliance with Ladislaus of Hungary, and secured 
Gregory X. to his interests. Ottocar, on his part, formed an alliance M'ith 
those princes whose states lay contiguous to the hereditary possessions of 
Rodolph. This war, w^hich broke out in 1275, continued, with but a short 
intermission, until 1278, when it was terminated by the death of Ottocar, at 

* Pictoiiiil Fiiince. Des Micliels. 



310 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER 




R O r> O L P II OF U A I' S B D H t 



the battle of Markfield. The objects of 
contention came into the possession of the 
emperor, who continued to increase his fa- 
mily domains until he aroused the suspicions 
of the great feudal retainers ; so that, in 
1290, when he attempted to secure the 
imperial crown to his eldest son, he no 
longer found the same ready compliance in 
the electors which he had hitherto expe- 
rienced, and in the following year he died, 
frustrated of his highest hopes. 

On his death, the electors of the em- 
pire, passing over lis son, Albert of Aus- 
tria, chose Adolphus of Nassau, emperor. 
This prince soon offended those by whose 
influence he was elected ; and Albert, rais- 
ing a strong party against him, obtained from a diet of the empire, the depo- 
sition of his rival, and his own election.* Adolphus appealed to arms. The 
two armies met at Worms, in 1298, w^here Albert was completely victorious, 
and Adolphus fell mortally wounded. 

Albert I. was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, and he immediately began to 
take measures for the extension of the empire. He already meditated the 
reduction of Thuringia, Bohemia, and Holland, when he was called to Switz- 
erland by a revolt of the sturdy mountaineers. The chief cities of Switzerland 
were originally imperial free cities. Albert wished to detach them from the 
empire, and unite them to his own province of Hapsburg ; but they, regarding 
his proposal with suspicion, refused ; upon which the emperor treated them 
with severity and cruelty. The insulting tyranny of his steward, Gesler of 
Bruneck, a haughty, overbearing nobleman, provoked the celebrated conspiracy 
of Grutli, in which the name of William Tell appears in all its glory. 

Three men, Werner Stauffacher of Schwitz, Walter Fiirst of Attinghau- 
sen, in Uri, and Arnold of Melchthal, in Unterwald, who, having all grievous 
cause for resentment, could depend with certainty on each other, met at mid- 
night, on the banks of the Lake of Lucerne, and resolved to unite themselves 
and their friends in an attempt to free their beloved country. 

Before the day fixed for their revolt arrived, the courage of the confede- 
rates was strengthened by the sympathy manifested by the people, in an 
occurrence which afterwards proved of some consequence to them. This was 
the celebrated incident of Tell's shooting the apple from the head of his son, 
with an arrow, at the command of Gesler, which was speeedily followed by 



* This diet is remarkable as being the first, which took upon itself to detlrrone an em- 
peror, whhout consulting the pope. 



THE SWISS. 



311 




the death of the tyrant, at the hands of the oppressed patriot. This circum- 
stance inspired the people of the mountains with hope ; and, accordingly, when 
they heard of the rising of the thirty-three, on New Year's day, they joined 
in it with earnestness. 

,HEIR success was so great that on the 7th of 
January, the people from the three cantons of Uri, 
Schwitz, and Unterwald met, took the ancient oath 
of confederacy, and declared themselves independent. 
Albert now marched against them, but all his efforts 
being unsuccessful, he was returning towards Haps- 
burg, when, on the 1st of May, 1308, he was mur- 
dered by his nephew, Duke John of Suabia. 

On the death of Albert, the German princes 
elected Henry VII., count of Luxemburg, emperor. 
He acquired for his house, by marriage, the kingdom 
of Bohemia ; and to indicate his right of superiority 
over the popes, fought his way to Rome, where he 
was solemnly crowned, and imposed a tribute on 
all the states of Italy. He died suddenly, a supposed 
victim of papal resentment. 
Louis of Bavaria, and Frederic III. of Austria, were now both invested 
with the imperial dignity by opposite factions. Louis was crowned at Aix- 
la-Chapelle, and Frederic at Bonn, (A. D. 1314.) A seven years' war ensued. 
While the two emperors struggled for supremacy in Germany, Frederic de- 
spatched his brother, the Duke Leopold, to reduce the Swiss to obedience. 
The duke advanced into Switzerland, and on the 16th of November, 1315, 
was attacked in the pass of Morgarten, and completely routed by the hardy 
mountaineers, who first broke his ranks by rolling huge stones down on his 
close columns, and then attacked him with their iron pointed clubs and hal- 
berds. The Swiss then renewed their ancient bond of union at Brunnen, and 
the emperor Louis, in several letters, confirmed their Hberty. Five other 
cantons soon after joined the former three, and all the possessions of the house 
of Austria in Switzerland were soon conquered by the new republic. 

In Germany, in 1322, by the skill and courage of Schweppermann, Louis's 
general, a great victory was gained at Muhldorf, over Frederic, who was ta- 
ken prisoner, and confined in the fortress of Traussnitz. Three years after- 
wards, however, he was liberated by Louis, and associated with him in the 
empire. 

This good understanding drew upon them the malice of Pope John XXII. , 
and of Leopold, Frederic's brother. Leaving Frederic to govern Germany, 
and carry on the war against his brother, Louis entered Italy, and joined by 
all the Ghibelline princes forced the pope's legate to raise the siege of Milan. 
The pope excommunicated the emperor, but Louis pursued his course to Rome, 



312 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

where he was crowned by Sciarra Colonna. A revolt of his soldiers, however, 
left him nearly powerless, and the intelligence of new troubles in his German 
dominions, obliged Louis to abandon Italy, and recross the Alps. (A. D. 1330.) 

Frederic died m 1330, and Louis remained sole emperor mitil his death 
in 1347. This event prevented a civil war, which would have resulted from the 
election of a rival emperor, Charles IV. of Luxemburg, who became his succes- 
sor. Charles added Brandenburg and Silesia to his dominions, and made many 
wise regulations for the government of Bohemia, paying less attention to 
the general concerns of the empire. In order to secure his coronation at 
Rome, on his visit to that city in 1355, Charles surrendered his supremacy 
over the papal dominions, renounced Padua and Verona to the Venetians, and 
appointed Galeazzo Visconti perpetual vicar of the empire in Lombardy. His 
coronation took place on Easter day, 1355. A diet of the empire, convened 
at Nuremburg in 1356, produced an edict, called from the seal of gold at- 
tached to it, the Golden Bull. This instrument determined the rights and 
privileges of the seven electors, fixed the order and form of imperial elec- 
tions, and gave supreme power to the electors of the Palatinate and Saxony, 
in case of an interregnum. Charles established the university of Prague, 
modelled after that of Paris, and soon after died. (A. D. 1378.) 

Charles's son and successor, Wenceslaus, followed the example of his father, 
and left the empire to take care of itself. His reign is remarkable only for 
the frequent seditions of his subjects, and for the attempt of Duke Leopold of 
Austria to enslave the Swiss, which was defeated by the victory at Sempach, 
gained by the devotion of Arnold of Winkelried, who, at the cost of his own 
life, broke the strong lines of the Austrians, and threw them into confusion. 
In this great battle, which was fought on the 9th of July, 1386, and which 
confirmed the freedom of Switzerland, the Duke Leopold perished, with six 
hundred and fifty-six counts, barons, and knights, and thousands of their 
vassals. 

Wenceslaus was imprisoned by his subjects in Bohemia, in 1393, and de- 
posed by the diet, seven years afterwards (A. D. 1400), and Robert, the 
elector palatine was chosen in his stead. Robert again attempted to restore the 
imperial power in Italy, but was defeated at Lake Garda ; and dying in 1410, 
the empire again returned to the house of Luxemburg. Wenceslaus, who was 
still acknowledged by some of the princes, consented to resign his pretensions 
in favour of his brother, Sigismund, King of Hungary, who was then unani- 
mously chosen by the electors. 

It was expected that Sigismund, who brought many titles and dignities to 
the empire, would restore its ancient splendour and power. This, however, was 
in some measure prevented by the attacks of the Ottomans, and the religious 
war which broke out in Bohemia. The council of Constance, which was con- 
vened in 1414, only brought fresh discord and misfortune on the empire. The 
persecution and martyrdom of John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, occasioned 



rOPE JOHN XXII. 



313 



a rebellion, against which Sigismund was unable to contend, until the council 
of Basle, in 1431, made the concessions required. The states submitted ; those 
who still held out were defeated at Bohemischbroda, and in 1434, a treaty 
of peace was concluded at Iglau. 

Sigismund died three years afterwards, having first given his daughter to 
Albert II. of Austria ; who in 1438 succeeded his father-in-law in the empire, 
possessing at the same tinae in his own right, the coronet of Austria, and 
through his wife, the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. The imperial dignity 
henceforth continued in the house of Austria, until the failure of male heirs 
in that house in 1740.* 

■'-—''--, HE wars of the Guelfs and Ghibellines still continued 

to rend Italy. The former were supported by the 
pope, the kings of France, and the princes of the 
Angevin house of Naples ; while the latter received 
some precarious and uncertain aid from the German 
emperors. Independent commanders of armed ad- 
venturers, known by the name of the Condottieri, 
proceeded to Italy, and hiring themselves to the 
highest bidder, desolated the whole country. After 
the death of Pope Clement V., in 1314, the rival 
parties of French and Italian cardinals strove more 
than two years in vain to elect a successor. The 
King of France at last assembled the cardinals at 
Lyons, and kept them shut up in close conclave, 
until they chose as pope, John XXII. Soon after, 
a war between Louis and the pope was commenced, in the course of 
which they deposed and excommunicated each other, Louis procured the 
election of an anti-pope, who took the title of Nicholas V. ; and if the 
avarice of the emperor, had not alienated from him the affections of the 
Ghibelline princes in Italy, he might have irretrievably crushed the power of 
Pope John. The anti-pope, deserted by his friends, was forced to surrender 
to John, who spared his life on the condition that he would appear in 
public with a rope around his neck, and ask the pardon of the pope and 
the public, for the evil he had done the church. (A. D. 1330.) He was 
then kept a close prisoner in the palace at Avignon, until his death, which 
happened about three years afterwards. It was about this time that John 
added the third crown to the pontifical tiara. The first crown worn by 
the popes, was sent by Clovis, King of France, as a present to St. John 
de Lateran, and was placed by Pope Hormisdas, about the year 515, upon 
his own head, over the cap which he usually wore. His successors, until 
Boniface VIII., wore the single crown ; but that pontiff, on his dispute with 




* KolUrausch. Des Michels. 



Vol. II. 



40 



314 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

Philip of France, assumed a double crown, to signify his claim to the 
temporal as well as spiritual authority. John added the third crown, in 
which form it has been worn by all his successors. He died in 1334, 
and his successor owed his election to his promise not to reside at Rome. 

Benedict XII. wished to restore peace to the church ; but Philip of 
Valois compelled him to a different course of policy. Edward III., King of 
Enoland, was preparing to assert his claim to the crown of France, and 
Philip feared that he would engage in his interest the Emperor of Germany; 
he therefore ordered Benedict to continue to harass and distress the empire. 
Benedict XII. thus suffered himself to become the tool of Philip of Valois. 
To prevent the German emperor from leaguing against him with Edward of 
Eno-land, Philip caused him to confirm the titles of the Lombard and other 
princes to the territories which they had usurped from the empire. His death, 
in 1342, placed upon the throne at Avignon, the ambitious and energetic 
Clement VI. Scarcely was he entered on the duties of his station, when he 
was involved in a quarrel with the emperor, in which he proved completely 
victorious. 

Robert, King of Naples, dying about this time, left his kingdom to his 
eldest daughter, Jane, with an injunction to marry Andrew, son of the King 
of Hungary, whose family had an ancient claim to the Neapolitan crown. 
The marriage took place ; but Andrew was soon after murdered, and Jane 
was suspected of having consented to the crime, as she immediately married 
again. Lewis, King of Hungary, the brother of Andrew, who had succeeded 
his father on the throne, advanced with an army to Naples, and revenged the 
murder by driving Jane and her husband out of the kingdom. (A. D. 1348.) 

The emperor, in order the more effectually to chastise the Guelfs, united 
his arms to those of Lewis, and was, consequently, again deposed by the 
pope, who prevailed on some of the electors to nominate Charles of Bohemia, 
Marquis of Moravia, to the empire. (A. D. 1346.) The new sovereign being 
brought up at the court of France, promised to recognise all the claims of 
the papal court ; but no real power was added to it, notwithstanding. 

In the meantime, while the princes of Europe were gradually emanci- 
pating themselves from the tyranny of the popes, a remarkable revolution 
wrested Rome itself from their grasp. The eternal city still preserved some 
of her republican institutions ; but the government hovered between an oligarchy 
and democracy, between the Guelfs and Ghibellines. At this juncture, Ni- 
cholas di Rienzi, the son of a miller, was sent with the ambassadors to Pope 
Clement to invite him to Rome. The pontiff refused to leave Avignon; and 
on the return of the embassy, Rienzi addressed the Romans in the capitol, 
exhibiting to them their deserted and miserable state, and painting in glowing 
colours, the happiness and prosperity of their ancient liberty. Such was the 
effect of his eloquence, that he was immediately declared tribune of the peo- 
ple, and invested with sovereign power. (A. D. 1347.) He degraded the 



RIENZI. 315 

senators appointed by the pope, put to death several of the nobility who 
were convicted of oppression, and banished the Orsini, the Colonnas, and many 
other noble families, whose feuds were a constant source of confusion in the 
city. The messengers whom he sent to the several cities of Italy, informing 
them of the liberty of the Romans, were everywhere treated with respect ; 
and he governed with such justice and moderation, that not only the Italian, 
but also foreign princes sought his alliance. He received embassies, with re- 
quests for his mediation, from Lewis, King of Hungary, and Jane, Queen of 
Naples ; from the two emperors, Louis and Charles ; and also a letter from 
the pope, at Avignon, commending his proceedings, and exhorting him to go- 
vern Rome in his name. Rienzi, disdaining to have any dependence on the 
pope, resolved to be absolute master in the city of the Romans. He obtained 
for himself the honour of knighthood, summoned the candidates for the empire 
to appear before him, declared Rome the metropolis of the world, and assumed 
the strange titles of Candidate Knight of the Holy Ghost, Severe and Mer- 
ciful Deliverer of Rome, Assertor of the Liberties of Italy, Lover of the Uni- 
verse, and August Tribune ; which only proved his weakness and vanity, and 
eventually occasioned his ruin. Rienzi was excommunicated by the pope as a 
heretic and a mad enthusiast, the banished nobles returned to Rome, and the 
tribune fled to Naples, to Lewis King of Hungary. From thence he wandered 
to the court of Charles, who sent him to Avignon, where he was committed 
to prison by the pope. 

In the meantime, a dreadful pestilence, desolating the whole of Southern 
Europe, compelled the King of Hungary to abandon Naples; and the death 
of the Emperor Louis leaving Charles without a rival, Clement resolved to 
take advantage of these circumstances, and extend his power in Italy. He 
restored Naples to Jane, who, in her turn, gave Avignon to the church. By 
ordering that the jubilee appointed by Pope Boniface VIII. should be cele- 
brated more frequently than before, he gained the good will of the people of 
Rome, who were pleased with the wealth thus brought to their city. Dying 
in 13o2, Clement was succeeded in the papal chair by Pope Innocent VI., who 
sent Nicholas Rienzi, with a legate, to Rome, to oppose the designs of Francis 
Baroncelli, who, following the example of Nicholas, had expelled the nobility, 
and taken the title of tribune. Rienzi was received with great joy, and again 
created tribune; Baroncelli was put to death, and the legate acknowledged. 
But the turbulent and active Romans soon grew weary of their former fa- 
vourite, and Rienzi was murdered by the populace. Charles IV. soon after 
entered Rome, and by permission of the pope, was solemnly crowned. Weakly 
giving up his title to Italy, he was treated with great indignity by those who 
would otherwise have remained his firmest friends. Innocent VI. died in 
1362, and was succeeded by Urban V. 

Convinced that the residence of the popes at Avignon was injurious to 
the interests of the church, Urban sought to restore the papal court to Rome, 



316 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 




and being invited to that city by the Emperor Charles, he hastened to leave 
a place where he was subject only to insult and ridicule. He was received 
with great joy by the Italians. He soon after quarrelled with Peter, King 
of Castile ; but afterwards accommodated all differences upon certain conditions 
not very honourable to the Holy See. 

HE emperor entered Italy in 1368, at the head of an 
army of forty thousand men, and when the pope 
came forth to meet him, led the horse on which 
the pontiff rode, by the bridle, as far as the church 
of St. Peter. This spectacle, instead of gratifying 
the Romans, induced them to treat the emperor with 
so much contempt, that he soon returned to Germany. 
The pope, not finding his Italian subjects as obedient 
and docile as he wished, took the opportunity of the 
renewal of the war between France and England, to 
return to Avignon, where he died in December, (A. D. 
1370.) 

Gregory XI. was the successor of Urban. It was 
Gregory's policy to humble the Visconti, who were now 
masters of northern Italy. He entered upon a war 
for this purpose, during the continuance of which, the 
Florentines threw Romagna, La Marcha and Perugia, into a state of rebelUon. 
The difficulties were at length accommodated, and the Romans gave up their 
liberty, on condition that the pope should remove from Avignon to Rome. 
(A. D. 1377.) 

On his triumphant entry into Rome, the pope determined to take effec- 
tive measures against heresies and innovation. He was prevented in this de- 
sign by domestic troubles. His Italian subjects becoming refractory, refused 
to obey his edicts ; and he determined to call a council, to take measures for 
averting the evils which he foresaw would fall upon the church after his 
death. The council was called and opened at Serazanse ; but Gregory died 
before they had time to produce any important result. (A. D. 1378.) 

Upon the death of Gregory XI., the Italian prelates exhorted the car- 
dinals to choose a Roman or Italian pontiff; otherwise they threatened them 
with an insurrection of the people. When the cardinals assembled to elect 
a successor, the common people surrounded the palace, raised a tumult, 
rung the alarm bells, and declared that unless the cardinals immediately chose 
a Roman or Italian pope, they would put them to death. In this emergency, 
the French cardinals named the Archbishop of Bari, who was remarkable for 
his modesty and humanity, and who they thought would abdicate the pontifi- 
cate, on account of the force which had caused his election. But the arch- 
bishop soon convinced them of their error ; he assumed the name of Urban 
VI., and obliged the cardinals to come to his palace, and perform the cere- 



JOHN HUSS. 317 

mony of his coronation. He even menaced several of them with punishment 
for their offences. Alarmed at his threats, the discontented cardinals fled to 
Anagni, where they declared his election void, warned all Christian sovereigns 
not to acknowledge him, and after excommunicating him, chose as pope Robert 
of Geneva, who took the title of Clement VII., and established his court at 
Avignon. 

Queen Jane of Naples espoused the cause of Clement, and was therefore 
deposed by Urban, who crowned Charles of Durazzo, King of Naples, Sicily, 
and Jerusalem. Charles took possession of Naples, and Jane was captured 
and strangled in prison. She named as her heir, Louis of Anjou, who died 
while attempting to get possession of the throne. The contest for the Nea- 
politan throne was long protracted by the successors of the royal claimants. 

Thus a violent schism arose in the church, by which all Europe was 
divided. Italy, Holland, Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Flanders, and 
England, declared their adherence to Urban ; while Spain, Navarre, Scotland, 
Savoy, Lorraine, and France, supported Clement. 

Many efforts to effect a reunion of the church having failed through the 
obstinacy of the rival popes, the cardinals deserted them both, called a general 
council at Pisa, and elected a third pope, who took the title of Alexander V., 
and immediately excommunicated the others with all their adherents. (A. D. 
1409.) After Alexander died, his party chose John XXIIL, who was im- 
prisoned by the council of Constance until he resigned. The anti-pope, Gre- 
gory XII., soon after resigned ; but Benedict XIII. retained his office until 
his death. His successor, Clement VIII., voluntarily abdicated, and the schism 
w^as healed, by the election to the papacy of Otho Colonna, a Roman noble, 
who took the title of Martin V. (A. D. 1417.) 

During the disputes which had thus distracted the papal Avorld, the 
writings and doctrines of the celebrated English reformer, Wicliffe, had been 
brought to the continent, (A. D. 1406), and there preached and translated 
into the vulgar tongue by John Huss, rector of the University of Prague. In 
compliance wnth the demand of the emperors of Germany, John XXIIL 
called a council at Constance, and bishops, ambassadors, and theologians, 
flocked thither from every part of Christendom. (November, 1414.) 

On the emperor pledging himself for his safety, John Huss appeared before 
the council to defend the doctrine he taught. Sigismund was induced to forfeit 
his pledge, and Huss was thrown into prison, to be tried as a heretic. When, 
subsequently, John Huss, and his fellow-reformer, Jerome of Prague, were de- 
clared obstinate heretics, and burned at the stake, their friends in Bohemia, under 
the leading of the courageous Zisca, took up arms in the defence of civil and re- 
ligious liberty, and heroically defended the truth, until the church at the council 
of Basle, by her politic concessions, obtained their submission to her authority. 

The pontiff, alarmed at the reform threatened by the Council of Constance, 
had hastily dissolved that assembly ; but he was constrained to call another, 



318 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

which met under his successor, Eugenius IV., at Basle, in 1431. Besides 
the reformation of abuses, this council was commissioned to deliberate re- 
specting the reunion of the Greek church, and other schismatic communions. 
The reformers pushed matters with such vehemence as to alarm the pontiff, 
who suspended the council, and convoked an assembly of the bishops at 
Ferrara, in 1431. 

This exercise of the papal authority produced another schism; the dis- 
sentient members continuing their deliberations, and electing another pope under 
the name of Felix V. This rupture, however, was healed in 1449, as well 
by the prudence of Pope Nicholas V., as by the abdication of Felix V., the 
anti-pope. By the two recent councils, it was made evident to the kings and 
princes of the earth, that there was a higher power than the pope, to which 
they might carry their appeals, and the mere dread of which often pro- 
cured concessions from the popes, which otherwise would never have been 

granted.* 

The advancement of science, art and civilization, however, proved far 
more powerful enemies to the despotism of the popes, than the opposition of 
kings and councils. The labours of Roger Bacon in experimental science, the 
invention or great improvement of printing and engraving, and the reform in 
the ItaUan language effected by Petrarch, Dante, and Boccacio, all served to 
emancipate the minds, and cultivate the understandings of men; while the 
invention of gunpowder, by reducing war to an exact science, rendered it far 
less destructive to human life than before. Hitherto the eastern ocean had 
been little known otherwise than by name, and the Atlantic was looked upon 
as a boundless expanse of sea, extending probably to the eastern shores of 
Asia. But the discovery of the polarity of the magnet, awakened a spirit of 
enterprise, which gave splendour and opulence to many cities of Europe, and 
a uniformly progressive impulse to commerce and manufactures. 

Edward III. ascended the throne of England in the year 1327. Being 
only in his fifteenth year, the parliament appointed twelve persons to admin- 
ister the government, as his privy council; but Mortimer and his mistress, 
the queen-dowager, contrived to usurp the whole sovereign authority. They 
surrounded the king with their creatures; and by their open criminal attach- 
ment, drew upon themselves the hatred of the whole nation. The Scots 
making irruptions into the north of England, the young king, glad of the op- 
portunity to escape from the court, put himself at the head of the army, and 
marched towards the north. He soon came up with the enemy, who were 
commanded by the Earl of Murray and Lord Douglas ; but though inferior in 
numbers, they were so advantageously posted on the banks of the Ware, that 
Edward feared to attack them. During the night, Lord Douglas, with about 
two hundred men, attacked the English camp, and penetrated to the royal 
tent; but Edward escaped, and they fought their way back with but little 

* Taylor. Des Michels. MachiaveL 



BATTLE OF HALIDON HILL. 



319 



loss. The Scots soon after decamped' secretly at midnight. A treaty, by 
which the independence of Scotland was acknowledged, was soon after (A. D. 
1328) concluded by Mortimer ; but the young king vowed vengeance on those 
who had caused him such disgrace. 

Edward soon after put an end to the tyranny of Mortimer and his para- 
mour. The favourite was surprised in the castle of Nottingham, condemned 
by the parliament which was then sitting, and executed at the Elms, near 
London. The queen was confined to her own house at Risings, where she 
passed the remaining twenty-seven years of her life. 

Edward being now his own master, paid no attention to the treaty with 
Scotland signed by Mortimer, and declared war against David Bruce. At the 
same time he recognised as king of Scotland, Edward Baliol, the son of John 
Baliol, who had already renewed the war for the throne, but with little suc- 
cess. He therefore retired into England ; and Edward marched north with a 
prodigious army, vanquished the Scots in the battle of Halidon Hill, and re- 
established Baliol on the throne. That prince professed homage and feudal 
service to the King of England, and made over to Edward, in return for the 
assistance which he had rendered him, a great part of Scotland. David Bruce 
fled from the kingdom with his wife ; but the Scots, incensed at the conces- 
sions of their new king, rose in arms under the regents, and renewed the 
war. Three expeditions undertaken by Edward failed to establish the new 
king securely on the throne. A favourable opportunity for the renewal of 
hostilities was taken on the departure of Edward for a foreign enterprise, 
which gave greater scope to his ambition. 

N the death of Charles IV. without male issue, the 
crown of France was claimed by Edward in right of 
his mother, Isabella, the daughter of Philip the Fair, 
and sister of the last three kings of France. Philip of 
Valois (VI.) took possession of the crown, however, as 
the consin-german and nearest male heir of the late king. 
Edward engaged in his cause the Germans, the 
old enemies of France, and the Flemings, who, under 
Artavelde, a brewer of Ghent, had revolted from their 
count. Nothing of any consequence, however, trans- 
pired until the year 1346, except a great naval battle, 
in which the French were defeated with the loss of 
two hundred and thirty ships, and thirty thousand men.* 
This victory was soon after followed by a truce for 
• four years. 

Edward resumed his wars with Scotland ; and, Philip, soon after his re- 
turn to Paris, found himself involved in the famous quarrel of Blois and De 




* RUS801I. 



320 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

Montfort in Brittany. John de Montfort laid claim to that province ; but as 
the daughter of an elder brother was alive and married to Charles of Blois, 
the king's nephew, Philip declared his nephew's wife the rightful heir, and a 
war ensued, during which De Monfort was taken prisoner, and confined in the 
Louvre. His wife Jane, the most extraordinary woman of her day, being 
roused by the misfortune of her husband from the domestic cares which had 
hitherto employed her, determined to support his falling fortunes. Having 
put the whole province in a posture of defence, she shut herself up in Hen- 
nebon, a town of great strength on the sea-coast, where she was besieged 
in the spring of 1342. She defended it with invincible courage, until Sir 
Walter Manny, and an English fleet, came to her rescue, and the French were 
compelled to retire. Jane, having thus called the English to her aid, success- 
fully resisted her enemies, and opened the way for another invasion of France 
by Edward III. He landed at La Hogue, in Normandy, and ravaged the 
kingdom without opposition, up to the very walls of Paris. Philip, however, 
assembled a superior army, and compelled him to retire. Edward retreated 
until he reached the field of Cressy, where, being on ground where he could 
fight with advantage, he declared he would retreat no further. The battle 
was commenced by a charge from the French, but they were driven back and 
totally defeated. Philip lost thirty thousand of his forces, including two kings, 
eleven princes, eight bannerets, and twelve hundred knights. In this battle 
the English are said for the first time to have used artillery. 

Edward the Black Prince, so called from the colour of his armour, though 
but fifteen years of age, commanded the English under his father the king, 
and performed prodigies of valour. His father, seeing his courage and success, 
would not rob him of any portion of his glory. " Tell him," said he, when 
informed that the prince was in great danger, " that he shall haA^e no assistance. 
Let the boy win his spurs ; he, and those with him, shall earn the whole 
glory of the day." Animated by these words, the prince fought more boldly 
still, and the French were thus completely defeated. Among the slain was 
the King of Bohemia. His crest, three ostrich feathers, with the motto "Ich 
dien," " I serve," was adopted by the Prince of Wales, and has ever since 
been borne by his successors.* 

Edward next invested Calais, which, after a siege of eleven months, was 
obliged by famine to capitulate. (A. D. 1346, Aug. 4.) The surrender of the 
town gave occasion for an exercise of the generosity of the heroic English 
queen Philippa, who, with prayers and tears, interceded for the six self-de- 
voted townsmen, who had given themselves up to Edward in order to save 
their city. 

In 1348, that dreadful pestilence, known as the plague of Florence, 
ravaged France ; and in 1350, Philip VI. died, at the age of fifty-eight. He 
was succeeded by his son, John II. 

* Historical Prints. 



BATTLE OF POITIERS. 323 

While King Edward was thus engaged in France, the Scots, headed by 
their king, David Bruce, invaded England, but were met at Nevil's Cross, by 
the English army under Queen Philippa, and completely routed, with the loss 
of fifteen thousand men. He himself was taken a prisoner to London. (A. D. 
1346.) 

In 1356, the French were again defeated by the Black Prince. This 
battle was fought at Poitiers, the French army numbering sixty thousand, 
while that of the English amounted only to twelve thousand. Notwithstanding 
this inferiority, the English routed the French, and took their king prisoner. 
The generous character of the Black Prince here manifested itself. He con- 
ducted the French king to his tent, with the utmost respect. He himself 
served at his table during supper, and refused to take a seat beside his royal 
prisoner, declaring that, as a subject, he was too well acquainted with the 
distance between his own rank and that of a monarch to assume such freedom. 

Thus had the English twice gloriously defeated the French ; but glory 
was their only reward. The treasury of England as w^ell as that of France 
was now completely exhausted. The Black Prince captured town after town ; 
but for want of the necessary means, he was unable to retain his conquests, and 
as soon as he turned his back upon any place, it was taken possession of by 
the dauphin, Charles, who had been constituted lieutenant-general of the king- 
dom by his father, and governed France during the king's captivity. In this 
way he recaptured St. Valois, Ponthieu, Rue, and Crotoy ; so that in a little 
time nearly the whole of France was recovered from the conqueror. 

Every calamity visited France during this disastrous war. Besides the 
disease already mentioned, Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, whom Philip 
had imprisoned, escaped from confinement, and rose in arms against the sove- 
reign authority. The adventurers and mercenary troops, whom the truce 
which followed the battle of Poitiers threw out of employment, spread them- 
selves over the defenceless country in search of plunder. The pope was as- 
sailed at Avignon, and compelled to redeem himself by a ransom of forty 
thousand crowns ; and the peasantry of many districts, impatient of distress, 
and maddened by oppression, broke out into an insurrection. This was named 
the Jacquerie, from the contemptuous phrase, " Jacques bon homme," applied 
by the nobles to their serfs, and it was marked by all the horrors that attend 
a war when men, brutalized by tyranny and maddened by wrongs, wreak 
vengeance on their oppressors.* 

The King of Navarre at length made peace with the dauphin ; the re- 
volt of the Jacquerie was suppressed by their destruction, and King John, be- 
coming weary of his long confinement in England, concluded an infamous 
treaty, which was rejected by the dauphin, and a convocation of the states, 
in 1359. Edward thereupon besieged the city of Rheims, but was repulsed ; 

* Taylor. 



324 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER, 




BE TURN OF KING JOHN OF FRA.NCE. 



and the next year he was obliged to abandon the siege, and retreat towards 
Bretigny. Peace was at length concluded by the treaty of Bretigny, which pro- 
vided that Poitou, Guienne, Saintonge, and Limousin, should belong to the King 
of England — that Edward should renounce all pretensions to the crown of 
France, and to Normandy, Maine, Touraine, and Anjou — that John should pay 
four millions of golden crowns as ransom for himself and the other prisoners taken 
at Poitiers — and that hostages should remain in England, until the same should 
be paid. King John was set at liberty ; but the hostages escaped to France, 
and the king returned to England, saying, that " if good faith and loyalty 
were banished from the rest of the world, they ought still to he found in the 



CHARLES THE WISE. 325 

hearts of kings." King John died a captive in 1364, and his son, Charles 
v., ascended the throne of France.* 

The Prince of Wales, invested by his father with the sovereignty of the 
duchy of Aquitaine, alienated the hearts of his vassals by his exactions. The 
Gascons, therefore, appealed for protection to Charles V., who, as the liege 
lord of the Black Prince, summoned him to appear at Paris. The prince re- 
plied, that he would go to Paris, but it should be at the head of sixty thou- 
sand men. The gallant prince, though greatly enfeebled by sickness, prepared 
to renew the war in the south of France, while his brother, the Duke of Lan- 
caster, desolated the north-eastern provinces. The fortune of war, however, 
soon turned. Charles, rightly surnamed " the Wise," appointed the great cap- 
tain, Du Guesclin, Constable of France. By his efforts, the Duke of Mont- 
fort, the firm friend of the Enghsh, was driven from his duchy ; the English 
fleet was defeated off Rochelle ; the Duke of Lancaster was unable to force 
the French to a battle ; and to complete the misfortunes of England, the Prince 
of Wales w^as obliged by sickness to return to his native country, where he 
soon after died. His father did not long survive him. At King Edward's death 
in 1377, his grandson Richard II. came to the throne at the age of eleven 
years. 

The weakness and indecision of Richard II., and the doubtful title of 
his successor, Henry IV., prevented the English from carrying on the war in 
France with any vigour ; and the French king, Charles the Wise, advanced far 
in the expulsion of the English from France, and in the promotion of interna] 
tranquillity. In the course of a few years, he succeeded in reconquering many 
provinces from the English; the feudatories of Upper Gascony transferred 
their allegiance to him; and he expelled the Duke of Brittany from his 
duchy, and the King of Navarre from nearly all his Norman possessions. 
Securing by marriage the succession of his brother, Philip of Burgundy, to 
Flanders, he attached that country to France. He carefully preserved the 
friendship of the emperor Charles IV. of Germany, and of his brother-in-law, 
Galeazzo Visconti, Master of Lombardy, and held the pope in complete de- 
pendence on him at Avignon. 

In his wars Charles had been ably seconded by his constable, Du Gues- 
clin, a man of great military knowledge and decision. He, however, had died, 
w^hile besieging the small castle of Randon; and now, when an English army 
again entered France, its movements were watched with uneasiness by the 
king, who was himself surprised by death in 1380, leaving the dauphin Charles, 
eleven years of age, under the guardianship of his uncles. 

The English having long been commercially connected with Flanders, on 
the annexation of that country to the duchy of Burgundy, they thought 
that, by concluding a separate treaty, the neutrality of the JBurgundian duke 

* Bonnechose. Russell. Pictorial France. 



326 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 








Vxx\ 



BA.TTLE OF A Z I N C O U B . 



would be secured to them in case of another invasion of France. Relying 
upon the promises of the duke, Henry V., in 1414, formally demanded the 
crown of France; and the next year, he landed in Normandy, and took the 
town of Harfleur. Henry lost so many men before this place, that he was 
obliged to retreat before the French towards Calais. Having at last arrived 
at a favourable position, near the town of Azincour, he halted, and prepared 
to face the pursuing enemy, though he knew them to be three times as nu- 
merous as his own army. The French commander D'Albret attacked him 
furiously. The nature of the ground, however, prevented him from availing 
himself of his immense superiority of numbers ; and the English gained a 
complete and brilliant victory. The French lost in this engagement seven 
princes, the high constable, and eight thousand gentlemen killed. The dukes 
of Orleans and Bourbon, and many other nobles and soldiers were made pri- 



ENTRY OF HENRY V. INTO LONDON, 



327 



soners.* In the midst of the fight, Henry was seen astride the fallen body 
of his brother Clarence, beating off the assailants. The stroke of a battle-axe 
brought hira to his knees, and a similar blow directly afterwards cut through 
the corner of his casque ; but the assailant was instantly slain as he was in 
the act of calling out to Henry, " I surrender myself to you ; I am the Duke 
of Alencon." The battle closed with the fall of this great chief. 

At Dover the English actually rushed into the sea, to meet their returning 
victorious king, and bore him on their shoulders to the shore. As he rode 
towards London, never was such enthusiasm, such rapture, such boundless and 
passionate love beheld as everywhere welcomed him. They rejoiced the more 




HENBT V. ENTKBI- 



LONDON 



in his modesty in not allowing his broken casque and bruised arms to be 
carried before him. 

The progress of the English in France was, for four years, almost unin- 
terrupted. At the end of that time (A. D. 1419), Philip the Good, Duke of 
Burgundy, to avenge his father's murder, offered to place the crown of France 
on the head of Henry of England ; and the queen, unnaturally hating her son, 
the dauphin, offered to Henry her daughter, Margaret, in marriage. These 
circumstances brought about the treaty of Troyes, by which the hand of 
Margaret was given to the English king, and he was declared regent of France, 
and heir to the insane Charles VI. 



* Taylor. Bonnecliose. Russell's France. 



328 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 




DUKE OF BEDFORD. 



Accordingly, when the kings of both 
England and France died in 1422, Henry 
VI., who succeeded to the throne of Eng- 
land, was proclaimed as king throughout the 
northern provinces of France, and his uncle, 
the Duke of Bedford, was declared regent. In 
the southern provinces, however, notwith- 
standing the treaty of Troyes, Charles VII. 
was recognised as king on the death of his 
father. Deprived of his capital and of more 
than half of his kingdom, Charles, who held 
his court at Chinon, soon saw his stronghold 
of Orleans besieged by an immense English 
army ; and even he, to whom the eyes of all 
France were turned, seems to have given up 
the hope of retrieving her sinking fortunes. 
A simple country girl achieved that which 
the King of France could not do. Joan of 
Arc overthrew the power of the English in 
France. She believed herself favoured with 
a supernatural commission from Heaven, to deliver her suffering country. 
Charles, on her being presented at his court, listened eagerly to her repre- 
sentations, clothed her with armour, placed her at the head of an army of 
devotees, and committed the cause of France to Heaven and to her. She 
advanced, raised the siege of Orleans, and from that time was surnamed " The 
Maid of Orleans." She then recovered town after town, and castle after 
castle ; the English, overcome by a superstitious awe, retiring before her until 
they were cooped up in the single town of Calais. (A. D. 1449.) Charles 
was crowned at Rheims, and proclaimed king of all France. The Maid of 
Orleans, the deliverer of France, soon after fell into the hands of the Duke 
of Bedford, the English regent, by whom she was condemned to death, and 
burned at the stake as a heretic. 

So many of the nobles of France had been slain in the terrible wars 
which desolated their country, that Charles VII. now found little difficulty in 
giving the government something of a despotic character, which his able and 
crafty successor, Louis XL, rendered complete and permanent. By adopting 
several of the decrees of the Council of Basle, Charles VII. secured the Gal- 
lican church from the future encroachments of the Holy See. These decrees 
were solemnly recognised in a national assembly held at Bourges, in 1443. 
They are known in history by the name of the Pragmatic Sanction. 

Spain during this period was divided into several monarchies. The Moors 
held Granada with a firm hand, and the mutual jealousies and distrusts of the 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 



331 




O H A li L E ~ VII 



Christian kings of Castile, Aragon, and Na- 
varre, prevented them from uniting their forces 
against the followers of the Prophet. 

Alphonso XL, who, by his gallant defence 
of Tariffa against the combined forces of the 
kings of Granada and Morocco (A. D. 1340), 
had delivered his own frontiers, and acquired 
several important fortresses, left his throne, at 
his death, to his son, Peter I., the Cruel, a prince 
perfidious, debauched, and bloody. He began 
his reign by murdering all who stood between 
him and the objects of his passions : his father's 
mistress, his own wife, his natural brother, his ^ rr^^g 
cousin, and his nobles. His natural brother, ^ 
Henry, Count of Trastamare, took up arms i^ 
against him, but was compelled to fly into 
France. There Charles the Wise, equally anx- 
ious to avenge his murdered sister, and to be 
rid of the marauding companies, gave him per- 
mission to enlist them in his service, and Du Guesclin was emi)loyed to lead 
them.. Peter the Cruel was by this means dethroned; but he was afterwards 
restored by Edward the Black Prince, who defeated Henry in a great battle, 
and took Du Guesclin prisoner. Peter proved ungrateful to his benefactor ; 
Du Guesclin purchased his liberty ; and a second war w^as commenced, by 
which the throne of Castile was secured to Henry. In the first interview 
with Trastamare, after his overthrow, Peter, though disarmed, rushed in a 
transport of rage against Henry, who slew him with his own hands, in re- 
sentment of his cruelties. 

The weakness and debauchery of Henry IV., one of his descendants, 
occasioned a revolution in Castile. The majority of the nation rose in re- 
bellion; an assembly of the nobles deposed the king, and a civil war com- 
menced which was not ended until the death of the deposed sovereign (A.D. 
1474), and the retirement of his daughter Jane (A. D. 1479) into a convent. 
During its continuance they had compelled him to settle the succession to the 
crown upon his sister Isabella, and had brought about a marriage of that 
princess with Ferdinand of Aragon. That kingdom had continued under a 
regular succession of princes for three hundred and thirty-nine years; and at 
the time of the accession of Ferdinand, in 1478, its commerce and maritime 
j)Ower had rendered it almost as important as Castile. The kings of Aragon 
had acquired the sovereignty of Sardinia, the Two Sicilies, the Balearic 
Islands, the county of Barcelona, and some other provinces in Catalonia. 
These two neighbouring kingdoms would probably have long struggled for the 



332 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 



supremacy of Spain, had they not been united by the marriage of the two 
heirs, Ferdinand and Isabella.* 

We now return to the affairs of England. As we have already stated 
in our notice of the affairs of France, Edward III., King of England, in 
1377, was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II., the infi^nt son of the Black 
Prince. During the young king's minority, the government was vested in the 
hands of his uncles of Gloucester, York, and Lancaster, who troubled the 
kingdom by their ambitious contentions. The expensive wars carried on by 
the late king had exhausted the treasury, and an inequitable tax of three 
groats was imposed on every person above fifteen years of age for the pur- 
pose of replenishing it. This tax, falling as heavily on the poor as on the 
rich, excited the most violent commotions. The inhumanity and brutality of 
the tax-gatherers inflamed these combustible materials ; and one of them, by 
his brutal insolence, so incensed a blacksmith, named Wat Tyler, that he 
struck him dead with a blow of his hammer. The spectators applauded the 
act ; and animated by a preacher, who maintained that every one had an equal 
right to all the goods of nature, they flew to arms, and the whole of Essex 
was soon in a state of open rebellion. Tyler, at the head of one hundred 
thousand men, after committing the most horrible excesses, burning the palace 

of the Duke of Lancaster, and murdering the 
primate, the chancellor, and many others high 
in office, met the young king in Smithfield. 
During the conference, the insolence of the 
blacksmith so offended Sir William Walworth, 
the Lord Mayor of London, that he struck 
him to the ground with his mace, where one 
of the king's attendants despatched him with 
his sword. Seeing their leader fall, the mu- 
tineers prepared for revenge ; but the young 
king, with admirable presence of mind, in a 
few words addressed to them, turned them 
from their purpose, and promising to grant 
their demands, put an end to the rebellion. 

This act gave great promise of spirit and 
decision of character, which the subsequent 
conduct of Richard did not reafize. His mis- 
government ])rovoked a revolution, which was 
commenced by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, at 
a time when Richard was engaged in Ireland. He speedily acquired posses- 
sion of the kingdom ; and such was the spirit of disaffection that, though 
Richard brought twenty thousand men from Ireland, all but six thousand 




RICHARD II. 



* Taylor. Mavor. Froissart 



HENRY IV. OF ENGLAND. 



333 




DEATH OF AVAT TYLER. 



joined his opponent. This small force only exposed hira to danger, and he 
therefore secretly retired from their presence, and attempted to fly to France 
or Ireland. But the Duke of Northumherland treacherously succeeded in 
getting possession of his person, and delivered him to Henry. He was con- 
ducted to London by Henry, who was there received with the acclamations 
of the multitudinous populace. 

It is pretended that the recorder met him on the road, and in the name 
of the city entreated him, for the public safety, to put Richard to death, with 
all his adherents who were prisoners; but he had no such harsh designs 
against his unfortunate relative. He summoned a parliament, at which the 
deposition of Richard was read and accepted amid shouts of joy from the as- 
sembled people without. 

Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, claimed the vacant throne, as the 
lineal descendant of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the second son of Edward III. 
Henry of Lancaster, however, whose father was the third son of Edward, 
was the favourite of the people and the master of the parliament, and claimed 
ihe throne by right of merit. He was proclaimed king under the title of 
Henry IV. (A.D. 1399); and the unfortunate Richard dying soon after, he 
was for a time secure in the possession of the crowm. The Mortimer claim 
was afterwards vested, by marriage, in the Duke of York, descended from 
the fourth son of Edward. Many of the nobles becoming discontented with 
the government of Henry, rebelled, and again threw the country into a civil 
war. The Percies, who headed this rebellion, were completely defeated at 
Shrewsbury in 1403 ; but their ally Owen Glendower, a descendant of the 
ancient princes of Wales, long showed his hostility to the House of Lancaster, 



334 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 




ENTRY OF HENRY IV. INTO LONDON. 



by making continual irruptions into the kingdom. Henry IV. commenced the 
persecution of the Lollards, as the followers of WiclifFe were termed, and the 
parliament passed a law condemning all heretics to the flames. 

Henry V. succeeded his father on the throne. (A. D. 1413.) By judi- 
cious reforms, and acts of favour towards the domestic enemies of his house, 
he secured the tranquillity of England ; and then renewing the claims of Ed- 
ward to the crown of France, he invaded that kingdom, gained the victory 
at Azincour, took possession of Paris, and died in France, in the midst of 
victory, in the year 1122 ; leaving as his heir, his son Henry, then only nine 
months old. 

With the death of Henry V. the good fortune of the English in France 
ceased ; and they were soon expelled from all their continental possessions, with 
the exception of the single town of Calais. (A. D. 1443.) These losses alie- 
nated the affections of the nation from the House of Lancaster, and this 
growing dislike was greatly increased by the incapacity of Henry, the pre- 
ference shown by him to his ambitious favourites, and the haughtiness of his 
Queen, Margaret of Anjou. At this crisis, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, 
in whom centred the rights of the House of Mortimer, and who consequently 
possessed a better title than Henry, now laid claim to the crown. Encou- 
raged by a large body of the nobility, and the commons in general, he took 
up arms and commenced a civil war which deluged England with blood. 
The ensign of the Yorkists was a white rose, that of the Lancastrians a red 



RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. 



335 




rose, and the struggles which ensued are known as 

the " Wars of the Roses." (A. D. 1454.) 

In the battle of St. Albans, five thousand of 

the Lancastrians were slain, and the king was 

taken prisoner by the Duke of York, May 22, 

1454. The spirit of the queen reanimated the 

Lancastrians, who soon drove the Duke of York 

to Ireland. His cause, meantime, was secretly 

maintained in England, by the Earl of Warwick. 

In the battle of Northampton, the Yorkists again 

prevailed, and Henry was once more brought pri- 
soner to London, while the dauntless queen still 

nobly exerted herself to retrieve his. fortunes. 

York now claimed the crown in open parhament, 

but prevailed only to have his right of succession 

ascertained on Henry's death, to the exclusion of 

the royal issue. In the next battle the Duke of 

York was slain, and his party defeated ; but his 

successor Edward, supported by Warwick, avenged richard du:ve of yorz. 

this disaster by a signal victory at Towton, in which forty thousand of the 

Lancastrians were slain. York was proclaimed king by the title of Edward IV. 
Edward proved ungrateful to Warwick, and forced him to join the Lan- 
castrians. A restoration of Henry VI. was the consequence, and Warwick 

gained the title of King-maker. Henry VI. 
was liberated from the Tower of London, 
where he had been a prisoner (A. D. 1470), 
and restored to the sovereignty, while Edward 
fled to the continent. But this chantre was 
of no duration. Edward returned, and defeated 
the Lancastrians in the battle of Barnet, where 
the brave Earl of Warwick was slain, 1472. 
Edward IV. died in 1483, leaving two sons, 
the elder, Edward V., only thirteen years of 
age. He was proclaimed king, and his uncle, 
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was chosen pro- 
tector and defender of the realm, by the 
privy council, and subsequently by parliament. 
A conspiracy against the life of the protector 
having been entered into by Lords Hastings, 
Rivers and Grey, they were arrested and exe- 
cuted. The offspring of Edward IV. were 
declared illegitimate, on the ground that their 
father had a wife living at the time of his 




RICHARD DU. 



OF GLOUCKSliK. 



336 



DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 




nKNBT VI. RELEAaED FRUM THE TOWER. 



marriage with their mother. The citizens of London tendered the crown to 
the protector; Edward V. was formally deposed by the legislature, and 
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was proclaimed king, by the title of Richard III. 

The character of Richard III, has been grossly misrepresented by different 
writers under the influence of the House of Tudor. He has been charged with 
murdering Henry VI., the Duke of Clarence, Eilward IV., and his children. 
The poetry of Shakspeare, and the prose of many historians, have united in 
representing him as a perfect monster of iniquity ; but the " Historic Doubts" 
of Horace Walpole, and the recent biography of Richard III. by Miss Hal- 
sted, have furnished abundant evidence of his innocence of these crimes, and 
of his abilities and justice as a sovereign. His views of national policy were 
too enlightened for the turbulent nobles of that stormy period in the history 
of England. They entered into a conspiracy with the Earl of Richmond, the 
surviving heir of the House of Lancaster, who, aided by Charles VIII. of 
France, landed with an army in England, gave battle in the field of Bosworth 
to Richard, who was entirely defeated and slain, while fighting with the most 
heroic courage, Aug. 22, 1485. The crown which had surmounted his helmet 
in the engagement, was immediately placed on the head of the conqueror, and 
he was proclaimed king, with the title of Henry VII. His subsequent mar- 
riage with EHzabeth, daughter of Edward IV., united for ever the rival houses 
of York and Lancaster, in the House of Tudor. 

The bloody disputes concerning the succession in Scotland, were finally 
terminated by the transfer of the crown to the fiimily of the Stuarts in the 
person of Robert II. Under this prince and his successors, the turbulence of 
the nobility was restrained by judicious enactments, and the royal authority so 
extended as readily to enforce the laws. 



SWEDEN. 



337 




HENRY VII. CROWNED ON BOSWORTH FIELD. 



For many ages the Scandinavian and Slavonian states are only known 
to history as the seat of continued petty wars and barbarian incursions. The 
expeditions of the piratical Northmen first introduced them to the more civi- 
lized portions of Europe. Christianity, with its accompanying elements of 
civilization, was gradually introduced into these distant lands by the intercourse 
of the Germans with the Swedes, and of the latter with the Danes and Nor- 
wegians. The intestine wars which harassed them, however, were not com- 
posed until the time of the great Queen Margaret, " the Semiramis of the 
North." Valdemar IV., of Denmark, left his kingdom to his daughter Mar- 
garet, the last descendant of the house of Odin. Albert of Mecklenburg 
having been elected to the throne of the Swedish states, to the exclusion of 
Hakon, the deposed sovereign came to Denmark and married the queen, Mar- 
garet. His subjects becoming dissatisfied with Albert, Margaret marched into 
Sweden, defeated Albert, and made him prisoner, in 1395. This victory was 
followed by the diet of Calmar, by which, in 1397, Denmark, Norway, and 
Sweden were united into one state. But the Swedes, after the great queen's 
death, became dissatisfied with the union ; and when King Christopher VII. 
died without issue, they separated from the confederacy, and chose for a sove- 
reign one of their native nobles, Charles VIII. The Danes elevated Christian 
Vol. II. 43 



338 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

I., Count of Oldenberg, to their throne, which has ever since been retained 
by his family. 

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the whole of the Russian 
provinces were under the domain of the Mongols, while the most western 
were also subjected to the ravages of the Poles. The Teutonic knights made 
a diversion in their favour, but the war was finally ended by the treaty of 
Thorn, under which the Poles acquired a considerable accession of Russian 
territory. (A. D. 1466.) Casimir the Great, King of Poland, wished, as he 
had no children, to secure the succession to his nephew, Louis of Hungary. 
He effected his object ; but the nobles seized the occasion to render the 
throne elective, and restrict the royal authority. On his death, Jagellon, Duke 
of Lithuania, was chosen to the throne. (A. D. 1382.) He renounced Pa- 
ganism, and established Christianity in his hereditary dominions.* 

The Ottoman Empire may be said to have commenced, in Asia Minor, 
about the middle of the thirteenth century, when the Mogul sultan, Gela- 
leddin, perished, and his army w^as scattered. That army was composed of 
many Turkish hordes, which, on the death of the great leader acknowledged 
by them all, separated, and followed each its own independent chieftain. 
One of these hordes followed Soliman Shah towards Iconiura. Soliman was 
drowned in crossing the Euphrates, and his son Orthogrul, with about four 
hundred families, became the subjects and soldiers of Aladin, Sultan of Ico- 
nium. His son Othman, in 1299, invaded the territory of Nicomedia, and 
finally established himself in its fortified towns and castles. His son Orchan, 
in 1326, compelled Prusa, the ancient capital of Bithynia, to surrender; and 
from that event we may date the true era of the Ottoman Empire. 

Soliman, the son of Orchan, one day left the encampment of his tribe, 
and rode along the shores of the Hellespont, passing on through the ruins of 
ancient cities, and fell into a silent reverie. " What is my khan thinking of?" 
said one of his escorts. " I am thinking," was the reply, " about our crossing 
over to Europe." They did cross over; and Soliman laid the foundation of 
the Turkish power in Europe by conquering Gallipolis. (A. D. 1358.) Soli- 
man's brother, Amurath I., captured Adrianople (A. D. 1360), and continued 
his conquests until his death, on the bloody field of Cossova. 

His successor, Bajazet I., threatened both Europe and Asia. He con- 
quered all the tribes from the Euphrates to the Danube ; and Eastern Europe 
was prostrated at the great battle of Nicopolis, where the valiant emperor 
defeated an army of a hundred thousand men, and became master of all the 
Eastern Empire except Constantinople. 

But another savage stronger than himself was destined to be the con- 
queror of Asia. Tamerlane was the son of a Turk of Zagatai, of the 
kingdom of Transoxiana. This, his native country, was, during his infancy, 

* Taylor. 



FALL OF BAJAZET. 



339 




TURKISH ENCAMPMENT. 



invaded and conquered by an army of Getes or Calmucks, under a khan of 
Kashgar. The young Tamerlane soon stood forth as the deliverer of his 
country ; and, in 1370, his grateful countrymen invested him with the imperial 
command, and declared him Emir of Zagatai. In about thirty years from 
that time, this great Tartar conquered Persia, Turkestan, or Eastern Tartary, 
Kipzak, Bulgaria, Circassia, Russia, and Hindostan ; thus extending his empire 
from the Wall of China to the Mediterranean Sea, and from India to Russia. 
His determination to wrest Syria and Anatolia from Bajazet, compelled the 
latter to abandon the siege of Constantinople. Timour invaded Syria (A. D. 
1400), and in quick succession sacked the cities of Aleppo, Damascus, and 
Bagdad. Then turning towards Anatolia, he laid siege to Angora. There, 
in 1402, he was overtaken by Bajazet, who gave him battle in the plains 
around the city. This engagement continued a whole day, and thousands on 
both sides fell by the edge of the sword ; but, while displaying the utmost 
efforts of valour, Bajazet was defeated and made prisoner, and in less than a 
year he died in the camp of his conqueror. Tamerlane, not content with his 
vast possessions, but aspiring to the conquest of the whole world, next pre- 
pared an immense army for the invasion of China ; and had actually advanced, 
on that expedition, as far as Otrar, three hundred miles from the capital, 
when he fell a victim to fever and fatigue, and perished in the seventieth 



340 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

year of his age, thirty-five years after he ascended the throne of Zagatai. 
(A. D. 1405.) His empire was dismembered after his death ; but upwards of 
a century afterwards (A. D. 1526), one of his descendants established, in 
Northern India, the empire of the Great Moguls, which subsisted almost to 
our own times. 

Fifty years after the defeat of Bajazet, Constantinople fell before the 
arms of one of his successors, Mohammed II. The sway of the cities on the 
coast of the Black Sea and the Adriatic was insufficient for the ambition of 
this enterprising ruler. He built a fleet, and began to conquer the islands of 
the iEgean in quick succession. Apulia was visited by his troops, and his ca- 
reer of victory threatened to be boundless. Christendom was filled with alarm, 
and Pope Pius II. convened a council at Mantua, resolving to preach a cru- 
sade against the Turks, and to lead it in person. His death at Ancona (A. D. 
1464) cut short his project, and Mohammed was allowed to establish and 
consolidate his empire. When the first outbursts of fanatical rage were passed, 
he granted protection to his Christian subjects, and restored to Constantinople 
much of its ancient splendour.* 

In the meantime, during the greater part of the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries, the states of Italy were continually at war with each other. About 
the year 1347, a battle was fought between the Venetian and Genoese fleets, 
in which the latter were completely defeated ; but, seven years afterwards, the 
fleets of the two rival cities again met, and the Venetians were in their turn 
defeated. Their commander, Pisano, and five thousand of his men, were made 
prisoners ; above twenty of their galleys were sunk ; and had Doria, the Genoese 
admiral, followed up his victory and attacked their city, it would probably 
have been reduced to a Genoese province. Doria, however, returned to Genoa, 
and the Venetians hastened to conclude a truce. 

War again broke out in 1378. Forty ships were equipped by the Vene- 
tians, and the command given to Victor Pisano, who, in 1380, attacked the 
Genoese squadron, under Ludovico Fiesco. As the hostile fleets approached each 
other, the sky was darkened by a cloud of arrows ; but this mode of attack 
was soon laid aside — the galleys grappling, and then being chained to each 
other in such a manner that the soldiers found it necessary to conquer or die. 
Thus, with their swords and spears, they fought a kind of land-battle on sea, 
in which, there being little room to dispute the victory, the slaughter was 
prodigious. It continued for two hours, when the Genoese were obliged to 
yield to the bravery of the Venetians. Although the son of Pisano was among 
the slain, and the victory was a bloody one, yet the capture of the Genoese 
admiral, with his whole fleet, caused the loss to be overlooked. Pisano 
gloried in the death of his son. The good fortune of the Venetians, 
however, did not continue long ; Pisano fell into an ambuscade laid by 

* Ranke. Tnj'lor. 



COSMO DE MEDICI. 341 

the enemy ; and though he defended himself with almost supernatural 
courage, he was defeated by the Genoese. For this ill success, he was soon 
after recalled by the doge and senate, and thrown into prison. The Genoese, 
encouraged by his absence, captured Caorli, Grada, Palestrina, Chiozza, and 
even laid siege to Venice. The common people then rose in open insur- 
rection, threatened the doge and senate, and refused to enlist themselves for 
the defence of the city until Pisano was set at liberty. Their desire was com- 
plied with ; the siege of Venice was soon raised, the Genoese were defeated, 
and peace was concluded. 

In the beginning of the fifteenth century, war again broke out between the 
Venetians and the Genoese, and a dreadful battle took place between the hostile 
fleets, in which the victory was gained by a skilful manoeuvre of Zeno, the 
Venetian commander. The Genoese lost near three thousand men ; four of their 
ships were sunk and three taken. (A. D. 1403.) About the same time the 
Genoese were defeated on land, with great slaughter, by Sabello the Vene- 
tian general. Verona and Padua were soon after taken, and Venice attained 
her meridian power and prosperity. 

War w^as next declared by Venice against Milan. Carmagnola, the Venetian 
general, was met at Sama by Philip Visconti, Duke of Milan, (A. D. 1427.) 
The battle commenced at noon, and at night no advantage had been gained 
by either side. In the evening a storm of wind arising, drove before it such 
a cloud of dust, as rendered it impossible for the soldiers to distinguish each 
other. An advanced party of the Milanese, thinking to retire out of the 
confusion, found themselves in the middle of the Venetian camp, where they 
were made prisoners. At last both generals ordered a retreat to be sounded, 
each claiming the victory. The Milanese, however, were soon after defeated. 
Four years afterwards (A. D. 1431), the army of Carmagnola suffered a signal 
defeat. War was carried on between these two powers until 1450, when 
Venice and Milan, wearied with their long struggles, would have concluded a 
peace, had not their reconcdiation been prevented by Sforza, who had formerly 
been the general of Philip Visconti, but had changed sides. He now declared 
war against both powers ; but the Milanese, murdering the Venetian ambassador, 
declared Sforza their prince, and immediately renewed the war against Venice. 
It was towards the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fif- 
teenth century that the family of Medici arose in Florence. In the middle 
of the latter century, Cosmo de Medici was the most -powerful person in the 
city; and having many friends and partisans, he found it easy to maintain his 
power. In 1464, however, he died universally lamented. His authority and 
estate, his liberality, his prudence, and his success, made him a prince in 
his country, beloved and feared by the citizens, and much esteemed by all 
the princes of Europe. He greatly advanced the glory of his country by 
patronizing learning and learned men. On his tomb was inscribed the title of 
" Father of his Country." 



342 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

He was succeeded in the government by his son Peter, who, after a tur- 
bulent administration of about six years, was followed by his sons Lorenzo 
and GiuHano. These princes had not long been promoted to this dignity, 
when a conspiracy was formed against them by Pope Sixtus IV., aided by 
the family of the Pazzi, at that time (A. D. 1477) the second in Florence. 
Giuliano was murdered ; but Lorenzo escaping, caused the conspirators to be 
punished, and retained the government. The war with the pope and the King 
of Naples was ended by the able negotiations of Lorenzo ; but he was no 
sooner freed from one war than he was involved in another, and the disturb- 
ances with the Venetians and the Genoese diverted his attention until he died, 
towards the end of the century, at the age of forty-four years. (A. D. 1492.) 
This great man was surnamed " The Magnificent," and resembled his grand- 
father, Cosmo, in all his public and private virtues. 

In the meantime, the papal power was hastening to its downftill. After 
the severe checks it received at the Councils of Constance and Basle, the 
pontiffs took a less conspicuous part in the general politics of Europe than in 
former times. 

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the commerce of Europe 
continually advanced in importance. Venice, by her victories over Genoa and 
other Italian cities, secured to herself the trade of the south and of India. 
By means of her treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, in 1343, Venice supplied 
the greater part of Europe with silks, spices, and the other commodities of 
India. In the north, the Hanseatic confederation, numbering, in the early part 
of the fifteenth century, eighty towns, possessed the exclusive commerce of the 
Baltic Sea, and carried to the markets of Bruges the produce of the unex- 
plored north. The progress of trade, and the intercourse thus effected between 
remote nations, naturally excited a love for maritime and inland discovery, which 
soon produced important consequences. As early as the ninth century, the 
Scandinavian pirates accidentally discovered the Feroe Islands, and soon after 
they reached the north-eastern coast of America, and gave it the name of 
Vinland. 

Among the nations which now engaged in foreign discoveries, Portugal 
stands pre-eminent. In the early part of the fifteenth century, Henry, 
the son of John L, King of Portugal, devoted most of his time to the study 
of astronomy, and the progress of maritime discovery. Under his auspices the 
western coast of Africa was explored as far as Cape de Verde, and the Cape 
de Verde Islands and the Azores were discovered. Prince Henry died in 1481, 
having first obtained a bull from the pope, investing the crown of Portugal 
with sovereign authority over all lands which might be discovered in the 
Atlantic, including India. During the reign of King John II., an expedition 
sailed from Lisbon, under the command of Bartholomew Diaz, who, in 1483, 
actually discovered the long-sought promontory, the southern point of Africa. 
A terrible storm prevented him from doubling it and prosecuting his researches, 



EXPULSION OF THE MOORS. 



343 



and he returned to Portugal, naming the headland, the " Cape of Tempests." 
King John, however, changed the name to that of the " Cape of Good Hope." 
The discovery of America, in 1492, diverting maritime research into another 
channel, it was not till 1498 that Vasco de Gama, having doubled the Cape 
of Good Hope, reached India, and dropped his anchor in the harbour of Calicut. 




'a;^ 



MOORISH ABCHITSCTURE — CHURCH OF THE DOMINICANS AT CATALAYDD, SPAIM 



In 1484, the sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, were engaged in 
a war of extermination against the Moors. They had entered the Moorish 
dommions at the head of a numerous army, and captured the cities of 
Malaga, Baza, Guadix, and Almeria. All communication with Africa was 



344 DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

cut off; and the city of Granada, the last remaining stronghold of the Mos- 
lems in Spain, was invested by the Christian forces. After a siege of eight 
months, during which it was reduced to the greatest distress, the place sur- 
rendered, on condition that the inhabitants should retain possession of their 
houses and inheritances, and enjoy the exercise of their religion; and that 
the king, Abdallah, should receive the revenues of some fertile territories in 
the mountains of Alpujarras. Thus the important fortress of Granada, after 
having been held by the Moors nearly seven hundred and eighty years, was 
again brought under the power of the Christians, and the banner of the cross 
and the standards of Castile and Aragon, were triumphantly displayed on the 
towers of the Alhambra. 

Thus ended the empire of the Arabs in Spain, after a duration of eight 
hundred years, during which they had introduced a degree of civilization and 
refinement unknown to the rest of Europe, and which Spain would never have 
enjoyed, but for the Moorish domination. The remains of their architecture 
still found in Spain, afford sufficient evidence of the high degree of perfection 
in the arts and science to which they had attained. 

After the conquest of Granada, the sovereigns of Spain fitted out the 
expedition of Columbus, who, in 1492, effected the discovery of the New 
World. The Spaniards, however, paid but little attention to the colonization 
of the newly discovered countries; and though the Dutch, the English, the 
French, and the Portuguese all attempted to plant colonies in America, yet it 
was not until the time of Elizabeth that any regular plan was formed to co- 
lonize the New World. All the commercial nations of Europe emulated the 
Spaniards and Portuguese in the discovery of new lands, till in 1521 Ma- 
gellan circumnavigated the globe, and seemed to put an end to all further 
discoveries. From that time the great nations of the earth directed their at- 
tention to the improvement and colonization of the lands already discovered. 
The naval power of Europe was increased ; manufactures everywhere multi- 
plied, and states, which before were poor, became suddenly rich; while some 
of those which have hitherto claimed much of the attention of the historian, 
dwindled down into insignificance, and will be hereafter but seldom mentioned. 
Commerce now began to take the place of warlike enterprises in the minds of 
sovereigns; and the policy of governments, and the discovery of America, 
brought about a great revolution in the aspect of nations.* 

* Taylor. Mavor. 




CAVES OF ELLORA. 




CHAPTER VIII 



S lu jj i a ♦ 



Vol. II. 



FROM the complete state of civilization in which the in- 
habitants of the great tract of country which we call 
India, were found by Alexander the Great at the time of 
his invasion, it is probable that their civilization reaches 
back more than a thousand years before the Christian era. 
The institution of caste renders it also probable that the 
Hindoos are of a mixed extraction ; and their traditions, 
-^ records, and monumental remains point to the neigh- 
bourhood of the Ganges as the cradle of the race, 
which, highly civiHzed, immigrated from north to south. 
There is great reason to suppose that the first settlers 
were a company of priests, from whom descended the 
pow^erful order of Bramins, who established their re- 
ligion with a form of government constituted by them- 
selves, and gained an ascendancy over the barbarian 
natives by the influence of superior learning. The pe- 
riod of their arrival is unknown, and the land of their 
extraction has never been ascertained. The Bramins, 
like the priests in Egypt, exercised an indirect sove- 
reignty over all the other classes of society ; and though 
the kings in both countries were selected from the war- 
rior caste, their prerogatives were fettered by institu- 
44 {^-A 



346 INDIA. 

tioiis which laid all affairs open to the cognizance of the priests. The per- 
sons of the Bramins were held so sacred that they could not lawfully be put 
to death even for the greatest crimes ; whilst any person who injured a Era- 
min was punished with greater severity than for any other offence. The 
second caste was that of the Kshatriya, or warriors, which comprehended all 
the soldiers and rulers of the country ; kings, princes, and magistrates. The 
great mass of the people were included in the third class, the Vaisyas, which 
comprised all husbandmen, merchants, and all artisans and mechanics, except 
those who belonged to the fourth class, the Sudra or servile caste, composed 
of servants and labourers. No changes could lawfully be made from one caste 
to another, nor could the son pursue any other avocation than that of his fiither. 

Their religious rites were conducted with unsurpassed magnificence ; but 
their first simple form of religion, which taught them to adore one Divine 
Power, Brama, as the universal Creator, and other gods merely as personi- 
fications of his various attributes, in the course of time degenerated into idol- 
atry. There appear to have been two great dynasties in what is called India 
proper, the region north of the Krishna river, excluding the Deccan. One of 
these fixed its seat at Ayadda, the modern Oude ; the other at Delhi, a very 
extensive and magnificent city, whose site is supposed, from the extent of the 
ruins still seen around the present city, to have been equal in extent to the 
space of ground now occupied by London. Here, surrounded by ruins, stands 
the loftiest column known in the world, a beautiful round tower called the 
Kuttub Minar, forty feet higher than the great monument in London. It is 
built in the form of a minaret, of red granite, inlaid with white marble and 
crowned by a majestic dome. 

The two races were respectively designated by the names Solar and Lu- 
nar. Two branches of the former, known in Indian history by the names of 
Pandoos and Kooroos, engaged in a war which, though it proved destructive 
to both, was of great service in its influence upon the Indian poetry, literature, 
and art. The downfall of these two races was succeeded, perhaps effected, 
by the establishment of the dynasty of Magadha, the throne of which was fixed 
at or near the modern city of Patan. One of these kings was Chandra 
Gupta, the same with the Sandracottus of the Greeks, a prince celebrated 
for his extensive conquests. The Braminical hostility was excited by a mo- 
narch of Magadha, known by the name of Mahapadma Nanda, who was 
either a ffither or a near relation of Chandra Gupta. The mother of the 
latter, however, was of a very inferior caste, and he may therefore have been 
an object of the ridicule of Nanda's other sons. Be this as it may, however, 
it is certain that the power, ambition, cruelty, and avarice of Nanda pro- 
voked the Bramins to effect his destruction, and Chandra Gupta was employed 
as their agent. He was aided in the rebellion by a northern prince, Pawats- 
wara, who was to receive an accession of territory in reward for his services. 
Wlicn Nanda and his family were slain, however, Chandra Gupta and his 



CHANDRA GUPTA 347 

advisers evaded their promise by assassinating Pawatswara. The murdered 
monarch had a son, called by the Indian histories Malayaketu, who led a 
host into India to avenge his fiither's death. Among the names of the nations 
composing this invading army, we recognise those of some of the Persian 
provinces. Dissensions dividing the councils of Malayaketu, he retired to his 
own country, having first made a treaty with Chandra Gupta. The latter 
thereby acquired additional territory ; the invader, who appears to have been 
none other than Seleucus Nicator, the first of the Seleucidse, gained several 
commercial advantages, and the supplies of elephants by which, on the bloody 
field of Ipsus, he wrested his dominions from the grasp of the ambitious An- 
tigonus. 

Chandra Gupta reigned in great glory twenty-four years, and left the 
kingdom to his son. Vicramaditya, called the Sovereign of all India, is the 
next celebrated character in the history of that country. His reign, which 
commenced about half a century before the Christian era, is preceded by a 
total blank in eastern tradition. He met with extraordinary success until near 
the close of his life, when he fell before the mighty Shahpoor of Persia, the 
second monarch of the Sassanian dynasty. The empire of India was made 
tributary to Persia. From this time until the Mohammedan invasion, India 
was divided among a great number of petty princes, who were all completely 
subject to the Bramins. The power of this priesthood, however, did not suffice 
to prevent opposition from reformers. The Vedas, or books of learning, the 
bloody sacrifices, and many of the laws of caste, were by them repudiated. 
The most celebrated of these reformers was Buddha, whose attempt to eman- 
cipate his countrymen was made long before Alexander's invasion. He de- 
voted his whole life to instructing the people, and lessening the power of the 
hierarchy. The religion which he founded prevailed over the greater part of 
IndiiJ for many centuries, and did not entirely disappear from the Deccan until the 
tenth century of our era. Since that time the Braminical system has been in tlie 
ascendant; but the religion of the modern Bramins differs very materially from that 
originally practised by their ancestors. All the sects, however, Bramins and 
Buddhists, have inculcated the doctrine of transmigration, and therefore interdicted 
the use of animal food and the destruction of animal hfe, except for sacrifice. 

In the first volume of this work, we had frequent occasion to mention 
the trade of the Phoenicians and Egyptians with India. Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus, not being very successful in his attempt to connect the Red Sea by 
a canal with the Mediterranean, built the city of Berenice under the tropic, 
and made it the great mart of Indian commerce. The goods were thence 
taken by land and the river Nile to Alexandria. The Persians were no sai- 
lors, and therefore carried on their Indian trade exclusively over land. Under 
the Roman government, the Egyptians made many more advances in navi- 
gation. Hippalus, an Egyptian commander, instead of creeping along the 
coast, stretched boldly across the ocean from the raoulh of the Arabian Gulf 



348 



INDIA. 



to the Malabar coast, favourerl on his voyage and return by the regular shift- 
ino- of the pericxHcal winds or monsoons. This gave a great impulse to the 
Indian trade, and it was soon followed by the discovery of Ceylon, hitherto 
unknown. The great increase of the supply of Indian goods thus effected 
enabled the merchants of Alexandria to supply Europe with spices and aro- 
matics, jewels, silks, and cotton cloths. From this time until the discovery 
of Vasco de Gama, little change was made in the routes of commercial com- 
munication with India. No attempts at colonization were made, and but little 
was known of the Hindoo manners and customs ; yet even that little serves 
to show that thousands of years have effected no change in their social insti- 
tutions.* 

* Tavlor. Corner. 




THE KDTTtJB MINAR. 





CHAPTER IX. 

HE Empire of China seems peculiarly fitted, as well 
by outward defence as by internal resources, for the 
isolated position which she holds among the nations 
of the globe. While the waves of a stormy ocean 
wash the shores of the east and the south, it is 
^^ encircled by deserts on the north, and, on the west, 
separated from the western worlds by chains of lofty 
mountains. 

While continual wars, and repeated invasions, 
swept away the population and devastated the face of all the other countries of 
Asia, the forefathers of the three hundred and sixty millions of people now in- 
habiting China, guided the plough, and raised the sheep and silk-worms which 
were to supply their simple wants, in almost unbroken peace, secured from 
foreign invasion by the Himalaya Mountains, and the Tartar hordes beyond them. 
Commercial intercourse with the rest of the world they needed not ; for such 
was the extent of their empire, and so great the diversity of soil and climate com- 
prehended within its limits, that the products of the north and the south, the 
mountain and the plain, were all indigenous. Coal, copper, and iron are found 
in abundance in their snow-capped mountains, whence also originate the great 
rivers which, rushing from the west to the east, are received by the number- 
less canals, and distributed over the country. The principal rivers are the 
Kiang, or River of Rivers, and the Hoang Ho, which, rising near each other 
in the mountains of Thibet, run by widely diverging courses across China into 
the Yellow Sea. China also contains five large lakes, whose waters furnish 
so great a supply of salt, as to afford considerable revenue to the government, 
which monopolizes the manufacture. Salt is also procured in one district of 

(340) 



350 CHINA. 

China, by boring a narrow shaft to a great depth in the rock. Twenty per 
cent, of salt, and a portion of nitre, are contained in the water procured 
from the wells, which also emit an inflammable gas, used by the workmen 
to evaporate the water, cook their food, and light the factory. 

The jealous exclusion of strangers, which has ever been the policy of 
the rulers of the Celestial Empire, renders it necessary to seek for their his- 
tory in their own annals, which have been fortunately preserved with a care, 
only surpassed by that of the ancient Egyptians. The Chou-king, the first 
of the five sacred books of the Chinese, gives the history of the empire from 
the reign of Yao, 2357 B. C, to the year 720 B. C. Native annalists, how- 
ever, date farther back. An emperor named Fou-ki, who had the head of a 
bull, and the body of a serpent, appeared to the benighted inhabitants of earth, 
instructed them in the arts of music, astronomy, and writing, introduced the 
marriage covenant, and taught them how to fortify their towns. Fou-ki was 
succeeded by Chin-noung, the " divine labourer," who invented the plough, 
diffused the knowledge of agriculture and botany over the land, exhibited his 
talents as an author and warrior in a work on the military art, measured the 
earth's dimensions, and first extracted salt from sea-water. Passing over his 
immediate successors, we come to Hoang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, with whose 
accession the annals assume a more authentic aspect. 

His accession is dated 2698 years before the Christian era; and it is in the 
sixty-first year of his reign that the methodical arrangement for computing 
time by the cycle of 60 years begins. An account of a rebellion which broke 
out five years previous to this period, is remarkable for the first notice which 
historians give of the use of the magnet. The Yellow Emperor pursued 
the rebels, finding his way by a chariot which indicated the south and the 
cardinal points. This emperor divided the people into classes, and the country 
into provinces, ten in number. These were again subdivided, each province 
forming ten departments, each department ten districts, the decimal system 
being carried to a great extent. Hoang Ti chose yellow for the imperial 
colour. He is celebrated as an historian, an astronomer, and a conqueror, but 
above all as the institutor of a system of public education. His empress 
taught her people to raise silk-worms and manufacture silks. 

The hundred years' reign of Hoang Ti was followed by that of his son 
Chao Hao, who governed his people well in many respects, but suffered them 
to fall into idolatry. After eighty-four years he was succeeded (B. C. 2513) 
by his nephew Tchouen Hio, who restored the ancient purity of the religion. 
In 2435 B. C, Ti Ko, the grandson of Tchouen Hio, ascended the throne. 
He caused music and some other branches of education to be taught to the 
people, but by marrying four wives introduced polygamy into China. The 
son of this emperor succeeded him, but was so wicked and feeble a prince 
that his subjects dethroned him and made his brother Yao emperor, 2357 
B. C. As before noticed, the celebrated book Chou-king commences with 



THE HEA DYNASTY. 351 

this great and good emperor. Though not so celebrated for magnificent works as 
many other emperors, the true Chinese dehght to recount to their family circles 
the numberless tales of his benevolence and piety. When he grew old he 
passed over his son, and selected as his associate in the empire, Yu Chun, a 
man remarkable for filial obetUence. Both these rulers were enabled to show 
their love for the people on the occasion of a great inundation. At the age 
of 118 Yao died, and was succeeded by Chun, 2255 B. C. His subjects 
mourned for him three years, and the same mark of public sorrow is now re- 
quired by law on the death of the emperor. At his inauguration, Chun "ex- 
amined the instrument which represented the stars, and the moveable tube 
which is used to observe them, and regulated the order of the seven planets," 
As he grew old, Chun determined to associate his servant Yu in the empire ; 
and when, after a reign of fifty years, Chun descended to the tomb, Yu 
reigned alone. 

This sovereign was the first of the Hea dynasty, the first of the 
twenty-two that have swayed the destinies of China. It furnished eighteen 
sovereigns, whose united reigns amounted to 439 years. (2205 B. C. to 1766 
B. C.) With Yu commenced the practice of choosing a successor to the throne 
from among the sons of the monarch. He continued the good works begun 
by his predecessors, and zealously endeavoured to improve his subjects during 
the six years of his independent sway. When he died, in his hundredth year, 
his son Ki was chosen by the nobles to succeed him, Tai Kang, the successor 
of Ki, consulted his own pleasure in preference to the welfare of his subjects ; 
and was, therefore, taken from the throne and exiled. His brother Tchoung 
Kang was placed on the throne, 2159 B. C. In the history of the reign of 
this sovereign, an eclipse is recorded ; in connexion with which it is related 
that two astronomers, who through drunkenness and inattention had neglected 
to give notice of the approaching event, were punished with death. After the 
death of Tchoung Kang, the sceptre came into the hands of his son Siang. 
This prince was dethroned by a minister, who was himself assassinated. The 
second usurper was expelled by the lawful heir, the virtuous Chao Kang. His 
successors grew gradually wicked, until, in the person of Kie, cruelty and de- 
bauchery reached such a height as to cause a revolt. Kie was exiled, and 
the head of the princely conspirators, Tching Thang, was confirmed as the ruler 
of the empire. The dynasty which commences with him, takes its name from 
the small principality of Chang, over which he had before borne sway. It 
furnished thirty kings, who swayed the destinies of China from 1766 to 1122 
B. C, a period of six hundred and forty-four years. 

The praises of Tching Thang have been celebrated by the great Chinese 
moralist, Khoung-tseu (Confucius), in his works. His reputation for wisdom 
was wide-spread, and the most profound veneration was entertained for him 
throughout his dominions. In the beginning of his reign, as we learn from 
the Chinese annals, there occurred a great drought which continued seven 



352 CHINA. 

years: this may be supposed to have been contemporary with the seven years' 
famine which produced the elevation of Joseph in Egypt. The record states 
that a period was at length put to the calamity by the emperor, whose public 
prayer and confession of sins was followed by a copious rain. The grandson 
and successor of this monarch was Tai Kai, who displayed such an early in- 
clination to vicious courses that the minister who was his guardian locked him 
up, during the three years of mourning, in his father's tomb. This method 
of correction proved successful, and the prince became a wise and pious mo- 
narch. The succeeding rulers of this dynasty present the same variety of 
characters as those of the first. Among them w^e bestow a passing notice 
upon two, Tchoung Ting and Wou Ting. In the reign of the first an inun- 
dation of the Hoang Ho caused the seat of the imperial government to be re- 
moved from the province of Chensi, and it was finally settled in Tchili, in 
which Peking is situated. The other sovereign is noted for his piety, and for 
having selected his minister on account of his resemblance to a man who had 
appeared to him in a dream as the proper person to fill that important office. 
The last prince of this dynasty, Cheou Sin, plunged in crime to such an ex- 
tent that the virtuous Fa, Prince of Tcheou, was called upon by the indignant 
people to dethrone the tyrant and assume the crown. He complied, and col- 
lected an army. The slothful emperor, when threatened with the loss of his 
throne, showed a degree of talent which, had it been exerted in the proper 
time and manner, might have secured him the prayers and respect of his peo- 
ple. But it was now too late. His bravery was exhibited in vain to troops 
who hated him for his vices ; they were routed by the insurgents, and he fled 
to his palace, and made it his own funeral pile. His queen, the partner of 
his crimes, fled from the burning palace, and endeavoured to ensnare the heart 
of the conqueror, but he ordered her to be put to death. 

The name of Wou Wang, the Warrior King, was applied to Fa, who 
showed great mercy and wisdom in following up his victory. He exercised 
universal clemency towards those who had fought against him ; but committed 
an error in rewarding his own partisans and others of the chief men of the 
empire, by bestowing on them large fiefs. Thus the power of the sovereigns 
was weakened, and occasion given to ambitious men for frequent wars. 

We remark in the history of this dynasty two important facts: one, that 
the emperors are known by different names after their accession to the throne 
from those which they had previously borne, but which were not given to 
them until after their death in the Hall of Ancestors, and which were thus a 
kind of judgment of posterity ; the other, that when corruption was advancing 
with rapid strides, and the ancient laws were disregarded, there providentially 
appeared the celebrated philosopher and teacher, Khoung-tseu, or Confucius, 
whose precepts of morality even at this day regulate both the government and 
the religion of the state. He was the son of the chief minister at the court 
of one of the petty kings of China. Studious by nature he forsook the sports 



CONFUCIUS. 



353 




CONFUCIUS INSTRUCTING HIS DISCIPLES. 



of youth that he might read the ancient books, and store his mind with the 
wise maxims they contained. At the age of nineteen he married, but finding 
that a matrimonial hfe hindered the progress of his studies, he divorced his 
wife, and commenced frammg a perfect system of government founded on the 
works of the ancient sages. Being appointed to a pubUc station, he found 
that the people were in the habit of breaking the laws with impunity, of 
acting dishonestly towards each other, and were altogether guilty of so many 
vices, in consequence of the negligence of their rulers, that a complete re- 
formation was necessary throughout the country. 

Being desirous of promoting this important change, both by instruction 
•and example, he journeyed through the ditferent states, giving public lectures 
on the benefit of virtue and social order, which produced such good effects 
that he was soon at the head of three thousand disciples, converts to his doc- 
trines and practisers of his rules of conduct. But the philosopher, finding that 
his efforts to reform the court were unsuccessful, resigned his dignities, and 
devoted himself, with a few friends, entirely to the study of philosophy and 
the composition of those works which have immortalized his name. We ex- 
tract from Miss Corner's beautiful work on China, the following account of 
the Confucian system, which, like Mohammed's Koran, regulates both the 
councils of state and the fireside circles : 

The Confucians believe in one supreme Deity, and adore the earth as the 
mother of all things ; but they have no particular form of worship, nor any 
Vol. II. 45 



854 CHINA. 

regular priesthood ; their rehgious rites consisting solely of sacrifices, made in 
the, temple on stated occasions, when the emperor officiates as high priest, and 
the chief mandarins of tlie court as his subordinates. The books of Confucius, 
which are studied by the Chinese as sacred volumes, teach them that the true 
principles of virtue and social order are, obedience to parents, elders, and 
rulers ; and the acting towards others as they would wish that others should 
act towards them. In the works of this great moralist, the duties of the 
sovereign are as strictly laid down as those of his subjects ; and while they 
are enjoined to obey him as a father, he is exhorted to take care of them as 
though they were his children. There was nothing new in this patriarchal 
system of government, which had existed from the very beginning of the 
monarchy ; but it was brought into a more perfect form, and the mutual ob- 
ligations of princes and people were more clearly defined, than they had ever 
been before. But it was not only on the government of the empire collectively 
that this celebrated teacher bestowed his attention ; he also made laws for 
private families, founded on the same principle of obedience from the younger 
to the elder, and submission from the inferior to the superior. Indeed, all 
classes of persons, including even young children, were instructed in the duties 
of their several stations by this highly gifted individual, who employed all the 
energies of his mighty mind for the benefit of mankind. 

The writings of Confucius are chiefly on the subject of moral philosophy ; 
but there are among them two books which may be considered historical, the 
one relating to his own, and the other to more ancient times. From the 
former is gathered all that is known of the state of the country at that period ; 
but the latter is regarded more as traditionary than as historical, as it is sup- 
posed to be merely a collection and arrangement of the records kept at the 
courts of the early monarchs by their historians. This work is entitled the 
Chou-king; and there is another called the Chi-king, containing all the 
ancient poems and songs of the country, which were sung or recited before 
the emperors. It may, therefore, be imagined that there were bards among 
the Chinese in those olden times, who celebrated in verse the great and 
good actions of their heroes and sages. These traditional poems were col- 
lected and revised by Confucius, who formed them into a volume, which- 
is still one of the standard works of the Chinese, and must be studied by all 
who aspire to preferment, as it forms the subject of a part of their examina- 
tion, before they can be admitted as candidates for any high office. The 
same great man formed into a code of laws all the ancient observances, both 
in public and private life ; being of opinion that the preservation of order in a 
state depended much upon the outward forms of society in general. This 
code, which is called the " Book of Rites," entirely regulates and governs 
the manners and customs of the whole community, from the emperor to 
the most obscure of his subjects ; and as it has maintained its influence to the 
present time, we may readily account for the little change which has taken 



LAO-TSEU. 355 

place in the habits of the people. The study of this book constitutes an im- 
portant branch of the education of every Chinese, and is, in fact, a part of 
his religion. Confucius died at the age of seventy-three, having spent the 
whole of his long life in the practice and inculcation of virtue. Nearly twenty- 
four centuries after his death, his name is held in the highest veneration over 
all his native country, and many temples are dedicated to his memory in the 
provitices of China, His descendants, who are very numerous, are the only 
persons who acquire the dignity of mandarins by inheritance ; they are also ex- 
empt from taxes, and enjoy other privileges on account of their great ancestor. 
Confucius has not inaptly been styled the " Apostle of Antiquity," as he sought 
only to revive the purity of former ages. In this respect, and in the practical 
nature of his laws, he totally differs from another great philosopher, Lao-tseu, 
who had appeared a half-century before him. This reformer, who desired 
equally with Confucius to improve his countrymen, lived in a modest and re- 
tired manner, assuming no honours to himself, though many of his disciples 
regard him as a divinity. He taught his followers to abstract themselves from 
worldly affairs, and subdue the promptings of the animal nature by religious 
contemplation and philosophical inaction, that they might be absorbed into the 
bosom of the Creator, whom he calls Tao, the Supreme Universal Reason. 

Of one of the successors of Wou Wang, it is recorded, that he highly 
prized his horses, which are scarce in China ; and he was so pleased with the 
skill of his hostler that he conferred on him the principality of Thsin. Tartar 
irruptions afterwards became frequent, particularly about the time of Siouen 
Wang. (B. C. 790.) Of this prince it is recorded, that he refused to perform the 
time-honoured ceremony of ploughing and sowing seed in an enclosure set apart 
for that purpose, on the great annual festival which celebrates the season of spring. 
This is one of the ancient observances that help to preserve the primitive 
character of the nation. The day for the royal ploughing is fixed by the 
Board of Rites, and the ceremony is accompanied by many solemnities on the 
part of the emperor and those who are to assist him, such as fasts and abstinence 
from amusements. As a just retribution for the impiety of Siouen Wang, the 
historians assert that his army was afterwards defeated by barbarians near the 
very field where he should have ploughed. 

His son, Yeou Wang, lost his life by a Tartar irruption, and his 
grandson. Ping Wang, " the pacific king," was a feeble prince, who re- 
moved the court to one of the eastern provinces, and gave the former capi- 
tal, with the title of king, to the warlike prince of Thsin, a descendant of 
the fortunate hostler above mentioned. The prince in return bound himself 
to protect the frontiers from the invaders. This was an unfortunate step for 
the reigning dynasty. Many opulent families would not remove with the 
court, but remained under the dominion of the King of Thsin, who, as he 
already surpassed him in power, immediately began to rival his imperial mas- 
ter in pomp. 



356 



CHINA 





EMPEROR PLOUGHING. 



The Tartar incursions nevertheless continued, and the chiefs of the principa- 
lities most exposed strove to fortify their dominions and augment their power. 
Three of these princes soon added the territories of their less powerful neigh- 
bours to their own, but the princes of Thsin eclipsed them all. For a time 
they suffered the feeble emperors to retain their title; but in 249 B.C., Thsin 
Chi Hoang Ti, the Augustan emperor of Thsin, dethroned Nan Wang, the 
last ruler of the race of the mighty Wou Wang. This warlike emperor 
reduced the whole of the Chinese principalities, and extended the southern and 
eastern limits of the kingdom to the sea. He protected the frontiers from the 
Tartars, by an army of three hundred thousand men; and at the cost of im- 
mense treasures, and the hves of four hundred thousand of his subjects, built 
the Great Chinese Wall. This act of tyranny has been cited as a proof of 
his wisdom, as he thereby kept the discontented among his subjects fully era- 
ployed. But his superior genius is more fully shown by the form of govern- 
ment which he framed, and which, after a lapse of two thousand years, is 
still the constitution of the empire. 

The author of a new constitution, Hoang Ti aspired to be considered by pos- 
terity as the founder of the empire. He therefore ordered all the sacred books — 
the historical annals — in short, every reUc of ancient times, to be destroyed; 
and death was decreed as the punishment of all who should retain any of them 



THE HUNS IN CHINA. 357 

after the expiration of thirty days. Many suffered death rather than submit 
to this edict, and imperial power itself could not succeed in blotting out the 
whole of these loved records. Numerous books were concealed until the 
storm had blown over, then to he produced and cherished as of greater value 
than gold. This great monarch died 210 B. C, and his decease was imme- 
diately followed by a struggle for the throne, which endured eight years and 
caused the murder of several emperors. 

The Han dynasty is the name given to that founded by Kao Tsou, 202 
years before the Christian era. Though it endured 422 years, and is known 
in Chinese annals as the heroic period, it commenced with rather unfavourable 
auspices. The new emperor had hardly taken his seat before he was called 
upon to suppress a revolt of the Hioung Nou, or " turbulent slaves," one of 
whom blockaded the emperor for seven days, and forced him to purchase a 
peace by giving the bold rebel a bride from the imperial family. After having 
quieted these disturbers, Kao Tsou directed his attention to the roads, and ef- 
fected almost incredible improvements upon them. 

His successor, Hoei Ti, " the generous emperor," revoked the decrees of 
Hoang Ti against the books. After him, came a barbarous and wicked 
woman, Liu Heou, the first female that swayed the sceptre of China. She 
was followed by a benevolent monarch. Wen Ti, " the literary," whose active 
encouragement of literature and the arts caused the invention of paper. Here- 
tofore, slips of bamboo formed the substance used in the manufacture of books. 
Wen Ti died 156 B. C, and was succeeded by his son King Ti. The glory 
of this prince is lost in that of Wou Ti, " the warUke," the patron of 
learning and the friend of the people. After a long struggle, he succeeded in 
subduing the Hioung Nou, or Huns, the turbulent slaves who troubled Kao 
Tsou. The attention of this people was soon after directed to the Yue Tchi, 
the ancient Scythians, who inhabited a country west of the province of Chensi, 
and who are supposed to have been the same people known in Europe as the 
Goths. The Hioung Nou, or Huns, failing to make an impression on the Chi- 
nese, attacked these Scythians, and drove them from their native land to the 
fertile and cultivated province of Transoxiana ; and accordingly we find Strabo 
giving an account of their operations there, in his history of the wars of the 
Parthians and the Scythians. (126 B. C.) The Chinese emperor was apprised 
of this migration, and to continue it he attacked the Huns and drove them 
further from his own territories. 

Wou Ti gave place to his son Sioueng Ti. (A.D. 65.) This was a wise 
and able monarch. His successors, however, differed greatly from him in cha- 
racter, and troubles consequently arose. We gladly pass over a long and un- 
interesting list of succeeding emperors and dynasties to Kao Tsou, who proved 
himself a friend of the people, and an enemy to pride and pomp. He com- 
pelled a hundred thousand monks of the Buddhists and other sects to marry ; 
and, although he was himself a partisan of Lao-tseu, he paid public honours 



358 CHINA. 

to Khoung-tseu (Confucius), and instituted schools in every village. His son, 
the Prince Li-chi-min, was a gallant soldier, who exhibited his prowess by 
driving a horde of Tartar invaders out of the country. In 626, Kao Tsou 
abdicated in favour of Li-chi-min, who took the name Tai Tsoung on his ac- 
cession to the throne. Few of the Chinese monarchs have surpassed him in 
valour, wisdom, and learning. His palace was converted, as it were, into a 
college, to which all the learned men of the kingdom resorted. Ten thousand 
pupils were collected together into an academy in the capital, and the sacred 
books were multiplied, and scattered thoughout the land. He remitted half 
the taxes, rewarded virtue, and mitigated severe punishments. After the 
death of this great and good emperor, w^e find the family to which he be- 
longed running the same downward course which had brought to destruc- 
tion those which preceded it. His immediate successors were unworthy 
of the connexion, and those more remote reflect little else than dishonour 
upon the annals of China. Some of them began to reign well, and reformed 
abuses ; but they soon grew corrupt, and gave the reins to license and dis- 
order. The power of the eunuchs, the " gnawing worms" of the Chinese 
historians, continually increased, so that in the year 900 they presumed to 
seize upon the emperor and the empress, and imprison them. Escaping, how- 
ever, the sovereign made open war upon them. The mandarins actively 
seconded his efforts; and every eunuch in the empire was put to death save 
thirty, reserved that they might sweep the courts of the palace. 

But the emperor was no sooner rid of this evil than he was threatened 
by another still more formidable. The general who had been chiefly engaged 
in the destruction of the eunuchs was rewarded with promotion ; but his am- 
bition grew with his power, and he took advantage of a favourable oppor- 
tunity to dethrone his imperial master. He founded the first of five small 
dynasties, collectively known in the history of China as the Wou-tai. Cruelty 
and rebellion, parricide and murder, usurpation and foreign invasion, make up 
the political annals of the empire during the successive reigns of the mo- 
narchs composing these five families. 

Tai-Tsou, the first ancestor of the Soung dynasty, mounted the throne 
(A. D. 960) by election of the nobles, the heir being too young to assume the 
task of governing a state which the strongest hand could with difficulty keep 
in order. The new emperor was worthy of the honour conferred upon him. 
He encouraged learning, and extended his paternal benevolence over the whole 
realm. He died in 976, and was succeeded by his ^n Tai Tsoung. Between 
the date of the accession of this emperor and 1064 A. D., the throne was 
filled by three emperors, who governed with so great advantage to the people that 
we can only regret the short continuance of their lives. During all this period 
the northern Tartars, who had assumed the name of Khitans, continued their 
devastating wars with the empire. Under the succeeding emperors they gained 
still greater advantages. Hoei Tsoung, who reigned from 1101 to 1125, im- 



KHOUBILAI KHAN. 



359 




TAHTAR GENEKAL AND HIS TROOPS. 



prudently called in the Joutchi Tartars from the eastern provinces to repel 
the Khitans, and this new branch of foreigners became more formidable than 
the other. Kao Tsoung (1127 to 1162) was obliged to acknowledge himself 
a tributary of the Tartar prince, Hi Tsoung, who would probably have 
conquered all China, had he not lost his life by a revolt of his troops. Con- 
tinual war followed. The Chinese called upon the western Tartars to repel 
those of the east ; and when these had rescued the rich provinces from the 
others, they secured them for themselves. Under Khoubilai Khan, a man great 
by station and by nature, they reduced the whole of China. He was the 
grandson of the renowned Zingis Khan, who began the conquest of China. 
Khoubilai Khan is the first of the Tartar monarchs whom the Chinese ac- 
knowledge as an emperor. They call him Hou-pi-lie, and Youan Chi Tsou 
(first imperial ancestor of the Youan dynasty). His character for benevolence, 



360 



CHINA, 



equity, and piety, gained for him the good will of his new subjects; and by 
his munificent patronage he attracted to his court learned men and skilful 
artisans of other nations, among whom we can mention Marco Polo, the 
celebrated Venetian traveller, who was for three years the governor of a 
southern province. Khoubilai built the city of Ta-tou, now Peking, and took 
possession of it in 1267. Secured upon his throne by the affections of his 
new subjects, Hou-pi-lie extended the bounds of the empire beyond their 
greatest previous extent. His realm reached from the Arctic Ocean on the 
north to the Straits of Malacca on the south, and comprehended Tartary, 
Thibet, and the country of the Oigours. Siam, Cochin China, Tonquin, and 
the Corea paid him tribute ; and his relations, who ruled over Western Asia, 
did nothing without his consent. 

Though the early Tartars introduced many new habits and a new re- 
ligion into the conquered country, we find their successors soon subdued by 
the honoured laws, rites, and institutions of civilized China, and bowing in 
reverence at the feet of Confucius. His books were translated into the Mon- 
gul language, and distributed among all the Tartars in the kingdom, who were 
recommended by the emperor to make themselves acquainted with the precepts 
they contained. But in the course of time, the emperors degenerated, and 
they finally came to be heartily detested by the people. Then arose from 
the lowest ranks a deliverer. A patriot general, who had risen from the 
labouring class, was proclaimed emperor by his troops ; the Chinese flocked in 
crowds to his standard ; and the last Tartar emperor, Chun Ti, finding his 
cause desperate, retired, with his whole court, into Tartary. (A, D. 1368.) 
Thus ended the Tartar dynasty. 







